08.06.2023
According to the “Wall Street Journal” report on June 8, China has reached a secret agreement with Cuba to spend a lot of money to build an electronic eavesdropping facility in Cuba, which is only 100 miles away from Florida. The disclosure of the plan has sparked unease within the Biden administration.
(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) The Wall Street Journal quoted U.S. officials with knowledge of classified intelligence as saying that China will build a wiretapping facility in Cuba, about 100 miles from Florida. To that end, China agreed to pay billions of dollars to cash-strapped Cuba. The two countries have reached an agreement in principle in secret. However, officials familiar with the matter declined to disclose more details about the possible location of the facility, when construction will start, and how the US will respond.
According to the source, the disclosure of the plan has caused unease within the Biden administration, because building a wiretapping facility in Cuba will allow Chinese intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on electronic communications throughout the southeastern United States, which has many military bases, and monitor U.S. ship traffic.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he could not comment on this specific report, but added that “we are well aware and have repeatedly mentioned that the People’s Republic of China is trying to invest in available infrastructure for military purposes”, including in the Western Hemisphere. He said that the United States is closely monitoring and taking countermeasures, and is confident that it can fulfill all security commitments in the United States, in the region and around the world.
Neither the Chinese embassy in Washington nor the Cuban embassy in Washington immediately responded to Reuters’ requests for comment.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, who is critical of China and Cuba, tweeted that “the threat to the U.S. from Cuba is not only real, it’s worse than that.”
The Wall Street Journal pointed out that the United States has intervened before to prevent foreign powers from expanding their influence in the Western Hemisphere, most notably during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. At the time, the Soviet Union deployed nuclear-capable missiles to Cuba, prompting the U.S. Navy to impose a blockade on Cuba. The United States and the Soviet Union once reached the brink of nuclear war.
last month,President Biden sent CIA Director Burns on secret visit to Beijing. On May 10 and 11, US national security adviser Jack Sullivan held a two-day meeting in Vienna with Wang Yi, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
(Wall Street Journal, Reuters)
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