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WASHINGTON: China has operated a spy base in Cuba since at least 2019, as part of a global effort by Beijing to upgrade its intelligence-gathering capabilities, according to a Biden administration official.
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said American Intelligence Community was aware China spy of Cuba and a larger effort to set up intelligence-gathering operations around the world for some time.
The Biden administration has stepped up efforts to thwart Chinese pressure to expand its spying operations and believes it has made some progress through diplomacy and other unspecified measures, according to the official familiar with US intelligence on the matter.
The existence of a Chinese spy base was confirmed after The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that China and Cuba had reached an agreement in principle to build an electronic listening station on the island. The newspaper reported that China plans to pay billions of dollars to cash-strapped Cuba as part of the negotiations.
The White House called the report inaccurate.
“I saw that press report, it’s inaccurate,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in an interview with MSNBC on Thursday. “What I can say is that we have been concerned since day one of this administration about Chinese influence activities around the world; certainly in this hemisphere and in this region, we are watching this very closely.”
The administration official said that US intelligence agencies determined that Chinese spying from Cuba was an “ongoing” issue rather than a “new development.”
Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio also refuted the report in a tweet on Saturday.
“Dirty speculation continues, and is clearly being propagated by some media outlets to cause mischief and anxiety without minimal consideration for communication patterns and without providing data or evidence to support what they publish,” he wrote.
President Joe Biden’s national security team was briefed by the intelligence community shortly after he took office in January 2021 about a number of sensitive Chinese efforts around the world as Beijing was considering expanding logistical infrastructure, bases and assembly as part of the People’s Liberation Army effort, the official said. more influence.
Chinese officials studied sites spanning the Atlantic Ocean, Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, and the Indian and Pacific oceans. The official said the effort included looking at existing collection facilities in Cuba, and that China upgraded its spying operation on the island in 2019.
Tensions between the United States and China have been running high throughout Biden’s term.
The relationship may have hit rock bottom last year after then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited democratically governed Taiwan. That visit, the first for a House speaker since Newt Gingrich in 1997, led China, which claims the island as its territory, to launch military exercises around Taiwan.
US-Chinese relations were further strained early this year after the US shot down a Chinese spy balloon that had flown over the US.
Beijing was also angered by a stop by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in the United States last month that included a meeting with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. The Taiwanese leader hosted the speaker at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Southern California.
However, the White House was eager to resume high-level contacts between the two sides.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to travel to China next week, a trip that was canceled as the blimp was flying over Blinken of America and is expected to be in Beijing on June 18 for meetings with top Chinese officials, according to two US officials who spoke. Friday, on condition of anonymity because neither the State Department nor the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs have yet confirmed the visit.
CIA Director William Burns met his counterpart in Beijing last month. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with his Chinese counterpart in Vienna over two days in May and made it clear that the administration wants to improve high-level contacts with the Chinese side.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently spoke briefly with China’s Minister of National Defense Li Changfu, at the opening dinner of a security forum in Singapore. China had earlier rejected Austin’s request to hold a meeting on the sidelines of the forum.
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said American Intelligence Community was aware China spy of Cuba and a larger effort to set up intelligence-gathering operations around the world for some time.
The Biden administration has stepped up efforts to thwart Chinese pressure to expand its spying operations and believes it has made some progress through diplomacy and other unspecified measures, according to the official familiar with US intelligence on the matter.
The existence of a Chinese spy base was confirmed after The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that China and Cuba had reached an agreement in principle to build an electronic listening station on the island. The newspaper reported that China plans to pay billions of dollars to cash-strapped Cuba as part of the negotiations.
The White House called the report inaccurate.
“I saw that press report, it’s inaccurate,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in an interview with MSNBC on Thursday. “What I can say is that we have been concerned since day one of this administration about Chinese influence activities around the world; certainly in this hemisphere and in this region, we are watching this very closely.”
The administration official said that US intelligence agencies determined that Chinese spying from Cuba was an “ongoing” issue rather than a “new development.”
Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio also refuted the report in a tweet on Saturday.
“Dirty speculation continues, and is clearly being propagated by some media outlets to cause mischief and anxiety without minimal consideration for communication patterns and without providing data or evidence to support what they publish,” he wrote.
President Joe Biden’s national security team was briefed by the intelligence community shortly after he took office in January 2021 about a number of sensitive Chinese efforts around the world as Beijing was considering expanding logistical infrastructure, bases and assembly as part of the People’s Liberation Army effort, the official said. more influence.
Chinese officials studied sites spanning the Atlantic Ocean, Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, and the Indian and Pacific oceans. The official said the effort included looking at existing collection facilities in Cuba, and that China upgraded its spying operation on the island in 2019.
Tensions between the United States and China have been running high throughout Biden’s term.
The relationship may have hit rock bottom last year after then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited democratically governed Taiwan. That visit, the first for a House speaker since Newt Gingrich in 1997, led China, which claims the island as its territory, to launch military exercises around Taiwan.
US-Chinese relations were further strained early this year after the US shot down a Chinese spy balloon that had flown over the US.
Beijing was also angered by a stop by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in the United States last month that included a meeting with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. The Taiwanese leader hosted the speaker at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Southern California.
However, the White House was eager to resume high-level contacts between the two sides.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to travel to China next week, a trip that was canceled as the blimp was flying over Blinken of America and is expected to be in Beijing on June 18 for meetings with top Chinese officials, according to two US officials who spoke. Friday, on condition of anonymity because neither the State Department nor the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs have yet confirmed the visit.
CIA Director William Burns met his counterpart in Beijing last month. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with his Chinese counterpart in Vienna over two days in May and made it clear that the administration wants to improve high-level contacts with the Chinese side.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently spoke briefly with China’s Minister of National Defense Li Changfu, at the opening dinner of a security forum in Singapore. China had earlier rejected Austin’s request to hold a meeting on the sidelines of the forum.
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