According to a Biden administration official, China has been operating a spy base in Cuba since at least 2019, part of a global effort by Beijing to upgrade its intelligence-gathering capabilities.
Apparently, the US intelligence community has been aware of China’s spying from Cuba for some time. A Biden administration official confirmed that Chinese spy base or facilities in Cuba that could intercept electronic signals from nearby U.S. military and commercial buildings have been up and running since before 2019.
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The White House previously confirmed the report as inaccurate.
The spy base was an issue that the Biden administration had inherited from former President Trump, and after taking office President Biden and his administration were briefed about the base in Cuba as well as plans China was considering to build similar facilities across the globe.
More confirmation came after The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets reported last Thursday that China and Cuba had reached an agreement in principle to build an electronic eavesdropping station on the island. The former plans to pay the cash-strapped country billions of dollars as part of the agreement.
A Cuban official have refuted the report, issuing a statement via social media saying, “The slanderous speculation continues, evidently promoted by certain media to cause harm and alarm without observing minimum patterns of communication and without providing data or evidence to support what they disseminate.” (Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío)
According to an offical familiar with the matter, the Biden administration has stepped up efforts to thwart the Chinese effort to expand its spying operations. The administration believes it has made some progress through diplomacy and other unspecified action.
US-China relations became further strained early this year after the US shot down a Chinese spy balloon that had crossed the United States.
On Friday, Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, in response to the reports said, “The U.S. is the global champion of hacking and superpower of surveillance.”
In a continued effort to normalize relations with China after a protracted period of heightened tensions, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is now scheduled to travel to Beijing for meetings that begin June 18. These new confirmed spy reports of collusion between Cuba and China could complicate those plans.
