US sends its displeasure to Cuba over alleged Chinese station | International

The United States has informed Havana of concerns that Cuba is hosting a Chinese spy base, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed at a daily press briefing at the White House. “We have conveyed our concern to them,” he indicated without giving further details.

Kirby spoke after Havana and Beijing on Friday called a Wall Street Journal article “false” that accused the Chinese government of intercepting Americans’ communications and reached an agreement to build the new base. A day later, on Saturday, the White House declassified information that China had maintained a spy base in the United States on the Caribbean island since at least 2019, during Donald Trump’s tenure. This information does not specify the dimensions or functions of the station.

“This is not a new move to gain intelligence-gathering capabilities in Cuba and the rest of the Western Hemisphere. From the first moment this administration came in, we have taken this issue seriously. We have taken steps to mitigate the impact of those operations, and we will continue to do so,” the spokesman said. .

Both Beijing and the Cuban government have steadfastly denied the existence of a station or plans for a new base, and they assert that it is information of interest that could harm both countries.

The senior US official, for his part, defended the White House’s handling of the episode. “We are being as transparent as possible given the sensitive nature of this information,” which prevented him from providing more details, as he promised. “Unfortunately, not everyone takes this as seriously as we do, and there is a source or sources that believe that this type of information entering the public domain is beneficial, when it absolutely isn’t.”

News of the alleged station comes as Washington and Beijing begin to take some steps to ease their relationship. Following a meeting between the national security advisers of their respective governments, Jack Sullivan and Wang Yi, in Vienna last month, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao visited the United States. State Department and National Security Council officials traveled to China last week.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is expected to travel to Beijing in the coming days for a visit he had planned in February that was put on hold as a result of a Chinese hot air balloon that Washington said was spying operations across the US border.

Kirby denied that information about the alleged station would derail efforts to steer the bilateral relationship, and insisted that President Joe Biden wants to maintain communication between the two capitals. “The relationship with China is tense now, and nothing has changed that the president wants to keep the lines of communication open.” Washington has expressed its fear that without dialogue, the incidents could degenerate into a crisis with serious unintended consequences. In the past two weeks, there have been two clashes between the two countries’ patrols in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

In a parallel press conference, Blinken assured that Cuba’s initiatives in China are part of Beijing’s global effort to expand its presence abroad, but insisted that the Americans have “weakened this effort” since Biden came to the White House in January 2021.

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