According to the Wall Street Journal, the Chinese government will set up a secret spy base in Cuba. The focus of the agents will be Spying on the United States.
China will also pay “several billion dollars for Cuba” to maintain a country, according to the newspaper electronic spy facility on the islandin a new one Beijing’s geopolitical challenge to the US.
A spy facility in Cuba, about 100 miles from Florida, would allow Chinese intelligence agencies to collect electronic communications throughout the US southeast, where many military bases are located, and monitor US shipping, the Wall Street Journal says, citing sources familiar with the military shared the information.
At a meeting in 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping and thenCuban President Raúl Castro shook hands after a bilateral meeting. Photo: Portal/Portal
“Officials familiar with the matter said that China had agreed to pay Cuba billions of dollars to enable construction of the listening station and that the two countries had reached an agreement.”
The revelation of the proposed location would have raised “concerns in the Biden administration over Cuba’s proximity to the Americas.”
Washington regards Beijing as its main economic and military rival. A Chinese base with advanced military and intelligence capabilities in the US backyard could pose an unprecedented new threat.
“Although I cannot comment on this particular report, we are well aware of the efforts of the People’s Republic of China to invest in infrastructure that can be used for military purposes around the world, including in this hemisphere, and have spoken to them on many occasions,” he told Wall Street. Journal John Kirby, Speaker of the National Security Council. “We are monitoring this closely, taking action to address it and remain confident in our ability to meet all of our security commitments domestically, regionally and around the world.”
US intelligence officials said the base would allow China to conduct signals surveillance intelligence, “known in the espionage world as sigint, which could include monitoring of a range of communications, including emails, phone calls and satellite broadcasts.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington made no comment. The Cuban embassy did not respond to a Wall Street Journal request for comment.
Officials declined to give further details on the planned location of the listening station or if construction has begun. The US has intervened before to prevent foreign powers from expanding their influence in the Western Hemisphere, most notably during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
The US and Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war after the Soviets sent nuclearcapable missiles to Cuba, prompting a US Navy quarantine on the island.
The Soviets retreated and removed the missiles. A few months later, the US quietly removed Turkey’s intermediaterange ballistic missiles, which the Soviets had complained about.
Russia’s secret base in Lourdes, 30 kilometers from Havana, near where China’s new intelligence base in Cuba is to be built. Photo: Andrew Winning/Portal
The intelligence information about the new base comes amid efforts by the Biden administration to improve USChina relations after months of disputes following a Chinese spy balloon flew over the US earlier this year.
Last month, President Biden sent Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns on a secret trip to Beijing, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke to a senior Chinese official in Vienna. It could not be clarified whether the planned Chinese spy station played a role in these talks.
Foreign Minister Antony Blinken is expected to travel to Beijing later this month and possibly meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Biden said in May he believed there was a thawing in USChina relations despite recent public tensions. /AP and W.POST