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

The United States has expressed its concern to Havana that Cuba is hosting a Chinese spy station, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby assured Monday 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 declaring Friday that a Wall Street Journal article accusing the Chinese government of intercepting Americans’ communications and creating a new base was “false.” 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 presidency. 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 took this issue seriously. We have taken steps to minimize the impact of those activities and will continue to do so,” the spokesperson 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 reporting 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 kind 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 visited 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 right 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 initiative” since Biden’s arrival in the White House in January 2021.

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