China has been using Cuba as a spy base since at least 2019, the White House said after it was reported last week that both the countries reached an agreement to build a spy base on the island. The Wall Street Journal, quoting senior US officials, reported that China planned to pay Cuba billions of dollars in exchange for the spy base.
The report was dismissed by the White House at first but later it said, “This is an ongoing issue and not a new development" though “the arrangement as characterised in the reporting does not comport with our understanding.”
When Joe Biden joined office in January 2021 he was briefed on China’s efforts to expand its global military and intelligence presence, the statement said, adding, “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] conducted an upgrade of its intelligence collection facilities in Cuba in 2019. This is well-documented in the intelligence record.”
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Chinese government “will keep trying to enhance its presence in Cuba, and we will keep working to disrupt it. We think the PRC isn’t quite where they had hoped to be," it added.
{{/usCountry}}Chinese government “will keep trying to enhance its presence in Cuba, and we will keep working to disrupt it. We think the PRC isn’t quite where they had hoped to be," it added.
{{/usCountry}}The White House also claimed that the US has taken diplomatic and other steps to “slow down” the Chinese government in Cuba. WSJ's report had claimed that the spy stations would allow Xi Jinping to gather electronic communications from the southeastern United States, home to many US military bases.
China responded saying that the US is “spreading rumours and slander” calling Washington “the most powerful hacker empire in the world”.
“As we all know, spreading rumours and slander is a common tactic of the United States. The United States is also the most powerful hacker empire in the world, and also veritably a major monitoring nation” Wang Wenbin, spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry said.