AREQUIPA, Peru – The Chinese ambassador to the island, Hua Xin, announced that as of January 1, 2025, Cubans who apply for a visa at the embassy of that Asian country in Havana will be exempt from paying fees.
The Chinese diplomat, the state agency reports latin pressshared the news in a congratulatory message to the Castro regime with which he commemorated the 66th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.
“At this time, I would like to present a New Year gift to the Cuban people. Starting January 1, 2025, Cuban citizens applying for visas to China at our Embassy will be exempt from visa fees. We hope to see more Cuban friends visiting our country every day,” Hua Xin highlighted.
However, the Chinese embassy clarified on its website that the collection of fees for urgent processing will continue.
The exemption from the collection of fees for Cubans by the Chinese embassy comes at the end of a year in which the Castro dictatorship has strengthened its ties with the Asian giant and the case of the military espionage bases located on the island was uncovered. .
In the middle of this month, the retired dictator Cuban Raúl Castro met in Havana with Colonel General He Weidong, vice president of the Central Military Commission of China, who is visiting Cuba.
Likewise, the Chinese soldier met with the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel at the Palace of the Revolution.
In the exchange, Díaz-Canel highlighted that in both nations “the armed forces are an important bulwark in socialist construction.”
At the beginning of December, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) of the United States published new evidence and details about Chinese espionage actions carried out from Cuba in complicity with the Castro regime.
So, one CSIS investigation revealed four sites inside Cuba that are likely supporting China’s efforts to gather intelligence on the United States and its neighbors.
“Satellite images and open source analysis offer unprecedented insight into these facilities and provide clues as to how they could be used to spy on sensitive communications and activities in the region,” the organization notes.
Among nearly a dozen sites of interest in Cuba analyzed by CSIS, the four bases identified are the most likely to be supporting Chinese intelligence efforts. These facilities are located in Bejucal, province of Mayabeque; El Salao, in Santiago de Cuba; the Wajay, in Havana; and Calabazar, also in the capital of the Island.
The bases stand out for having equipment capable of collecting signals intelligence (SIGINT), their clear physical security infrastructure (guard posts, perimeter fences, military insignia, etc.) and other characteristics that suggested collection activities. of intelligence.
Some of these facilities are decades old, but appear to have been modernized in recent years; others have emerged only in recent years, the study notes.
