China building spying facility in Cuba: Report

Cuba has agreed to allow China to build a spying facility that could enable the Chinese to eavesdrop on electronic communications across the Southeastern US.

According to CNN, the US learnt about China’s plan to build the facility on the island in the last several weeks. The news site quoted sources who confirmed the development but had conflicting inputs on the stage of the construction. While one source said that China has already begun building the surveillance facility, the second source claimed that there have been no movement on building the facility. 

One of the sources said that an eavesdropping base would be concerning, but China has already established ‘secret police stations’ inside the US. The Biden administration has reportedly begun its crackdown on these stations. 

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, in a statement on Thursday afternoon, said that the Biden administration has been concerned about China’s activities in the hemisphere since Day 1 of the administration. Kirby said that the US is closely monitoring the situation and are taking steps to counter it. 

This story was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, who was told by Kirby that he would not be able to speak on the matter but that the US officials are “well aware” of China’s efforts to invest in infrastructure around the world that may have military purposes. 

However, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio denied the reports and called them “totally untrue” and “slanders”. He said that these reports have been fabricated by the US officials to justify the “unprecedented reinforcement of the economic blockade, destabilisation, and aggression” against Cuba. 

Reports about the Chinese outpost in Cuba comes at a time when US-China relations are at an all-time low. Recently, in February, a suspected Chinese spy balloon is said to have gathered signals intelligence and transmitted the information back to Beijing in near-real time. 

Meanwhile, US’ relations with Cuba too are not all rosy. The Biden administration has resumed limited bilateral conversations on issues like migration. Cuba was re-added to US’ state sponsors of terrorism list in January 2021 for “providing support for acts of international terrorism” and giving refuge to US fugitives. 

Also read: 'We'll put a gun in every Taiwanese household': US GOP Presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy's wild anti-China strategy

Also read: 'Obvious provocation’: China accuses India of using visa restrictions to prevent media contacts