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Washington, A Biden administration official said Saturday that China has been spying on Cuba for some time and improved its intelligence-gathering facilities there in 2019. The statement came after reports of new espionage efforts underway. in Cuba.
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that China and Cuba had reached a secret deal to build a wiretapping facility on the island, about 100 miles from Florida. However, the US and Cuban governments have denied the report.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Biden administration official said the media characterization “does not align with our understanding.” However, he did not explain how the information was wrong or whether there had been any attempts by China to build new wiretapping facilities in Cuba.
The official said the problems predate Joe Biden’s presidency, as did Beijing’s efforts to bolster its intelligence-gathering infrastructure around the world.
“This is an ongoing issue, not a new development,” the official said. “The PRC (People’s Republic of China) undertook an upgrade of its intelligence collection facilities in Cuba in 2019. This is well documented in intelligence records.”
Asked for comment, an official at the Chinese Embassy in Washington referred to Friday’s statement by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson who accused the United States of “spreading rumors and slander”. speaking of Cuba’s spy station, and being “the most powerful hacker empire in the world”. world.” World.
The Cuban government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio dismissed the Journal’s report as “absolutely untruthful” and called it US engineering designed to justify Washington’s economic embargo on the island since then. decades. He said Cuba rejects any foreign military presence in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Concern over allegations of Chinese spying from Cuba comes as Washington and Beijing take tentative steps to defuse rising tensions after a high-altitude Chinese spy balloon flew across the United States before the military American shoots her off the east coast in February.
This includes a trip to China that US officials say was planned by Secretary of State Antony Blinken for June 18. The top Washington diplomat previously canceled the visit due to the spy balloon incident.
Biden administration officials have said that while Donald Trump’s former administration was aware of China’s grassroots efforts in Cuba and made efforts to meet the challenge, “we are not making enough progress and need a more direct approach.
The official said US diplomats had engaged governments considering hosting a Chinese base and had exchanged information with them.
“Our experts believe that our diplomatic efforts have slowed down the PRC,” the official said. “We think the PRC is not what they expected.”
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