The United States targets an interception base on the island

A Chinese spy base only about 160 kilometers from Florida, United States. This would not be just a wish from Beijing, but a reality. And for years.

At least that’s the view of a Joe Biden government official who spoke this weekend on condition of anonymity.

The source cited by the US press maintains that the Asian giant operates a facility for the electronic interception of communications in Cuba, which it updated in 2019.

Beijing’s goal of collecting insider information would not only target the major power, but also governments around the world, amid China’s efforts to increase its geopolitical influence.

According to the official, this is a situation that US intelligence agencies have been aware of, whose information was provided to President Joe Biden’s national security team shortly after taking office in January 2021.

Then, the US intelligence agencies warned the Government that the Asian giant was seeking to expand its logistics, base and data collection infrastructure, for which they observed sites that span the Atlantic Ocean, Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa and the Indo-Pacific. They also assessed their already existing spy infrastructure on the island located off the US mainland.

An existing or future spy base?

The information is known after last Thursday, June 8, a report by ‘The Wall Street Journal’ indicated that Beijing and Havana reached a “secret agreement” to house a facility that would allow the interception of electronic communications, including telephone calls, emails and satellite transmission.

Primarily, the facility would allow Beijing to collect communications information from the southeastern United States, which is home to many military bases, as well as monitor ship traffic, the US newspaper reported.

Among them is the headquarters of the US Central Command, based in Tampa, and the largest military base in the country, Fort Liberty, located in North Carolina.

According to that report, Beijing would deliver “several billions of dollars” to Havana, with severe financial liquidity problems.

However, the White House described the report by the press in his country as “inaccurate”, indicating that US intelligence operations have determined that Chinese espionage from Cuba has been an “ongoing” issue and “not It’s a new development.”

“I have seen that press report, it is not accurate (…) What I can tell you is that we have been concerned since the first day of this Administration about China’s influence activities around the world, certainly in this hemisphere and in this region. We are watching this very, very closely,” said White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby in an interview with local channel ‘MSNBC’ last Thursday.

Washington also rejects an agreement for a new spy base in Cuban territory. “We are not aware that China and Cuba are developing a new type of spy station,” said Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for the US Department of Defense.

Cuba rejects hosting Chinese spy base

Meanwhile, from the island, the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel refutes both the statements of the White House and the US press.

Cuban Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossio called the report “totally untrue and unfounded” and called it a fabrication by the United States aimed at justifying the decades-long economic embargo against the island.

He also added that Cuba rejects any foreign military presence in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In Washington, some lawmakers issued harsh warnings against the island.

Senator Bob Menéndez, Democratic chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee and a great opponent of the policy of rapprochement with Cuba, stressed that if it would be “a direct attack on the United States (…) So I hope the Administration thinks about how it will react if it’s true,” he said.

A former US intelligence official with knowledge of the intelligence gathering stressed that a Chinese listening post in Cuba would be a “big problem” for already difficult relations between the two powers.

The information is known at a time of high tension between Beijing and Washington. Their ties have soured over disputes ranging from military activity in the South China Sea and near Taiwan to technological competition.

And more recently, disputes have been raised over the alleged high-altitude Chinese spy balloon that crossed the United States before the military shot it down last February.

However, the United States has a long history of spying on China in its vicinity, experts point out. Among its actions would be the use of Taiwan as a listening site for mainland communications and the regular overflight of spy planes in the South China Sea.

Relations between Washington and Havana also remain tense. Last year the Biden Administration partially revoked some restrictions from the era of his predecessor on remittances and travel to the island, but Cuban officials say those measures are insufficient for the normalization of relations. Former President Barack Obama took giant steps in that direction, along with his then counterpart Raúl Castro, in 2014, but then they suffered a major setback in the Donald Trump era.

With Reuters, AP and local media