(Washington) China has been trying for years to expand its spy operations from Cuba, where it honed its capabilities in 2019, a White House official who did not wish to be identified said Saturday.
This statement comes after several American media, following the wall street journalspoke in recent days of an agreement between Havana and Beijing to set up a “spy base” on the island, some 160 km from Florida, to capture data in the United States.
John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, called the article in the wall street journal of “inaccurate”.
The US executive now indicates that when Joe Biden came to power in January 2021, his services were informed of “efforts” by China to set up bases “across the world”, in particular for espionage purposes, according to this source.
Among those “efforts” was “the presence of China’s intelligence collection sites in Cuba,” the official said, adding that Beijing “honed its intelligence collection sites in Cuba in 2019.”
“This is well established in intelligence records,” the official said.
He assured that the Biden administration had “inherited” this situation and had undertaken to respond to plans for the establishment of Chinese bases in the world “with discretion and precaution”, including through diplomatic channels, with several governments.
The US government, the source says, has “slowed down” China’s overseas expansion plans, but “there are still challenges and we remain concerned” regarding the relationship with Cuba.
China will continue to try to strengthen its presence in Cuba and we will continue to work to prevent it.
White House official interviewed by AFP
The affair is sensitive on the diplomatic level, at a time when the American president says he hopes for a “thaw” of very tense relations with Beijing, and evokes a meeting in the more or less near future with his counterpart Xi Jinping.
It is also politically embarrassing: Joe Biden, campaigning for re-election in 2024, is regularly opposed by the Republican opposition for lacking firmness both in the face of China and in the face of the communist regime in Cuba.
The relationship between the two powers had experienced a sharp rise in tension in February, after the United States destroyed a Chinese balloon which flew over their soil. The White House then accused Beijing of using it for espionage, which China denied.
This incident led to the cancellation of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China. This visit has just been rescheduled for June 18.