The Joe Biden government has intensified its measures to prevent Beijing from expanding its espionage operations, although it considers that it has made some progress through diplomatic channels.
China has an active spy base in Cuba since at least 2019 as part of Beijing’s attempts to improve its intelligence-gathering capabilities globally, according to a Biden administration official.
America’s intelligence community has been aware for a long time of the espionage that China carries out from Cuba and of Beijing’s attempts to set up intelligence-gathering centers around the world, said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the matter.
The Biden administration has intensified its measures to prevent China from expanding its espionage operations although he considers that he has achieved some progress through diplomatic channels and through other unspecified measures, indicated the official informed of federal intelligence actions on the matter.
The existence of a Chinese spy base was confirmed after The Wall Street JournalHe reported Thursday that China and Cuba had reached an agreement in principle to build an electronic interception station on Cuban territory.
billions of dollars
According to the newspaper, China plans to pay billions of dollars to Cuba as part of the negotiations at a time when the island is short of cash.
The White House dismissed the article as inaccurate.
“I already saw the article, it’s inaccurate,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday in an interview on MSNBC. “What I can tell you is that we have been concerned since day one of this administration about China’s influence activities around the world; certainly in this hemisphere and this region, We are watching very closely.”.
The US intelligence community had determined that Chinese espionage from Cuba has been an “ongoing” issue and “not a new fact” the source claimed.
Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío also refuted the article in a tweet on Saturday.
The official said that the smear campaign promoted by certain media continues to cause harm and alarm without backing up with data or evidence what they propagate.
The intelligence community informed Biden’s national security team - as soon as he assumed the presidency in January 2021 - on the number of sensitive Chinese stocks around the world where Beijing was weighing expanding its logistics, bases and collection infrastructure against attempts by the People’s Liberation Army to expand its influence, the official said.
Chinese authorities examined sites spanning the Atlantic Ocean, Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa and the Indo-Pacific region. The effort included studying current collection facilities in Cuba, while China expanded its espionage activities on the island in 2019according to the official.
tensions
The United States and China have had strong tensions during the Biden government.
Relations between Washington and Beijing hit their lowest level last year after then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited the democratic island of Taiwan. Due to the visit, the first by a female House speaker since Newt Gingrich’s in 1997, China undertook military exercises around Taiwanwhich it considers part of its territory.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have further escalated this year after the United States shoot down a chinese spy balloon who had crossed US territory.
Beijing was also furious when Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen visited the United States last month and met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The Taiwanese president and McCarthy met at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Southern California.
Anyway, the White House has been willing to resume high-level communications between the two countries.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken He plans to travel to China next week.. This visit was to take place earlier but was canceled when the balloon flew over the United States. Blinken is scheduled to be in Beijing on June 18 to meet with Chinese officials, according to US sources who requested anonymity on Friday.
Neither the State Department nor the Chinese Foreign Ministry have confirmed the trip.
PA Agency
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