China has been spying on Cuba for years, US official says

Havana criticizes “slanderous speculation” as a White House official says Beijing upgraded its intelligence-gathering facilities in Cuba in 2019.

China has been operating an intelligence unit in Cuba for years and upgraded it in 2019 as part of a global effort by Beijing to increase its intelligence-gathering capabilities, according to a senior US White House official.

Saturday’s statement came days after The Wall Street Journal reported that China had reached a secret deal with cuba to establish an electronic espionage facility on the island approximately 100 miles (160 km) from the state of Florida in the southern United States.

The WSJ reported that China planned to pay billions of dollars to cash-strapped Cuba as part of the negotiations.

The governments of the United States and Cuba have questioned the report.

The White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the WSJ’s characterization “does not comport with our understanding,” but did not specify why the report was wrong or elaborate on whether China made efforts to build a new facility. espionage in Cuba.

The official said the problem predates the administration of US President Joe Biden, as did Beijing’s efforts to strengthen its intelligence-gathering infrastructure around the world.

“This is an ongoing problem and not a new development,” the official said. “The People’s Republic of China (PRC) carried out an upgrade of its intelligence gathering facilities in Cuba in 2019. This is well documented in the intelligence record.”

Asked for comment, an official at the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, pointed to Friday’s statement by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson who accused the US in the world.”

Meanwhile, the Cuban government criticized the latest development.

“Slanderous speculations continue, evidently promoted by certain media outlets to cause harm and alarm, without following minimum communication guidelines, and without providing data or evidence to support what they disseminate,” Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío said on Twitter.

Cassio previously described the WSJ report as an American fabrication meant to justify Washington’s decades-long economic embargo against the island.

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

The attention around suspected Chinese spying from Cuba comes as Washington and Beijing take tentative steps to defuse tensions that escalated after a suspected high-altitude Chinese spy balloon crossed the continental United States before the US military shoot it down off the east coast in February.

That includes a trip to China that US officials say Secretary of State Antony Blinken is planning for June 18. Washington’s top diplomat had previously ruled out the visit over the spy balloon incident.

The Biden administration official said that despite the fact that the administration of former US President Donald Trump was aware of the efforts of the Chinese base in Cuba and was making some attempts to address the challenge, “we did not we were making enough progress and needed a more direct approach.”

The official said US diplomats had engaged with governments considering hosting Chinese bases and exchanged information with them.

“Our experts assess that our diplomatic efforts have slowed down the PRC,” the official said.

“We believe that the PRC is not exactly where they expected to be.”