China to build spy base in Cuba

China has reached a secret deal with Cuba to establish an electronic eavesdropping facility on the island roughly 100 miles (160 km) from Florida.

The Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. officials familiar with classified intelligence, reported that such a spy installation would allow Beijing to gather electronic communications from the southeastern U.S., which houses many U.S. military bases, as well as monitor ship traffic.

The countries have reached an agreement in principle, the officials said, with China to pay Cuba “several billion dollars” to allow the eavesdropping station, according to the Journal.

However, the U.S. and Cuban governments cast strong doubt on the report.

“We have seen the report. It’s not accurate,” John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said. But he did not specify what he thought was incorrect.

He said the United States has had “real concerns” about China’s relationship with Cuba and was closely monitoring it.

Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, a U.S. Defense Department spokesperson, said: “We are not aware of China and Cuba developing a new type of spy station.”

In Havana, Cuban Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio dismissed the report as “totally mendacious and unfounded,” calling it a U.S. fabrication meant to justify Washington’s decades-old economic embargo against the island. He said Cuba rejects all foreign military presence in Latin America and the Caribbean.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said: “We are not aware of the case and as a result we can’t give a comment right now.”

The agreement between the two U.S. rivals, both ruled by communist governments, has caused alarm in President Joe Biden’s administration, the newspaper said, posing a new threat close to America’s shores.

The Journal said U.S. officials declined to provide more details about the proposed location of the listening station or whether construction had begun.

Also Read: China accused of hacking key US bases in Guam

The reported deal comes as Washington and Beijing are taking tentative steps to soothe tensions that spiked after a suspected Chinese high-altitude spy balloon crossed the United States before the U.S. military shot it down off the East Coast in February.

“We have had real concerns about the China’s relationship with Cuba, and we have been concerned since day one of the administration about China’s activities in our hemisphere and around the world,” the White House’s Kirby said.

Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, and Senator Marco Rubio, the panel’s vice chair, said in a statement they were “deeply disturbed” by the report and urged the Biden administration “to take steps to prevent this serious threat to our national security and sovereignty.”

Cuba, an old Cold War foe of the United States, has long been a hotbed of espionage and spy games.

However, the U.S. has a long history of spying on China in its own neighborhood. It is widely reported to have used Taiwan as a listening post for the mainland and regularly flies spy planes in the South China Sea, angering Beijing.