MIAMI, United States. – An official in the administration of President Joe Biden confirmed this Saturday that China has been spying on the United States from a base in Cuba. After a report published by The Wall Street Journal last Thursday, spokesmen for the Cuban regimes and Chinese They denied their alleged agreement to install an espionage center in the largest of the Antilles. The Pentagon and the White House, for their part, initially described the press reports as “inaccurate.”
This Saturday, the Biden administration official who confirmed China’s use of Cuban territory to spy on the United States, and who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue, specified that this was a problem inherited by the current American government.
The Wall Street Journal He also echoed the statements that rectify his official report, but do not deny it.
“When this administration took office in January 2021, we were made aware of a number of sensitive efforts by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) around the world to expand its overseas logistics, basing and assembling infrastructure globally to enable the [Ejército] project and maintain military power at a greater distance,” the official said, according to the US media. Political.
He also specified that the presence of PRC intelligence collection facilities in Cuba was part of this effort. “In fact, the PRC did an upgrade of its intelligence collection facilities in Cuba in 2019. This is well documented in the Intelligence record,” he confirmed.
Although there are no details, it is known that in 2022, during the visit of the Cuban ruler, Miguel Díaz-Canel, to the People’s Republic of China, both regimes signed agreements to formalize and execute projects named “National Identity System of natural persons and Supervision of Wireless Networks” and “Data Forensic Laboratory”, as reported by the Island Government itself. Both included the donation from China to the largest of the Antilles.
This same year, on April 3, both governments they signed a cooperation agreement on cybersecurity, the state agency Prensa Latina reported at the time. According to Mayra Arevich MarínMinister of Communications of the Island, the agreement ratified “the will to work for a cyberspace based on the development and well-being of its peoples.”
Given the rapprochement of the governments of Cuba and China on espionage issues, Biden would have directed his administration to address the matter through diplomatic channels. “In a matter of months, we did it,” said the official consulted by Political.
Although he did not go into details, he said that diplomatic engagements between China and the United States have brought “results” as American experts believe they have “slowed down the PRC.” “We believe that the PRC is not exactly where they expected to be,” the official added.
Despite the administration’s initial reaction to the reports, the news drew heavy criticism from lawmakers. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, criticized Biden’s management on the matter.
“President Biden needs to stop ignoring the threat from China,” Turner declared. “In less than 48 hours, Biden administration officials have contradicted themselves multiple times on whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is spying on the United States. This is unacceptable”.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-New York), a member of the same panel, said the base story was “plausible enough to warrant congressional scrutiny.”
“If the CCP is using a spy facility in Cuba, as media reports have alleged, then Congress has a duty to investigate the matter rather than accept Defense Department denials at face value,” he said in a statement. statement on Saturday.
The two leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a joint statement Thursday in response to the news. “The United States must respond to China’s continued and brazen attacks on our nation’s security. We must be clear that it would be unacceptable for China to establish an intelligence facility less than 100 miles from Florida and the United States, in an area also populated with key military installations and extensive shipping traffic,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va. ) and Marco Rubio (R-Florida).
