The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday denied allegations that China was spying on the US from Cuba and criticized the conflicting information coming from the US government and media outlets.
The Wall Street Journal first reported last week that Beijing and Havana reached an agreement “in principle” on establishing a Chinese spy facility in Cuba. The Pentagon and White House quickly dismissed the report, calling it “not accurate,” but an unnamed Biden administration official later told the media that China had been spying on the US from Cuba since at least 2019.
“Over the past few days, we have seen self-conflicting comments from US officials and media on the so-called allegation of China building ‘spy facilities’ in Cuba,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin.
“What is true can never be false, and what is false can never be true. No matter how the US tries with slanders and smears, it will not succeed in driving a wedge between two true friends, China and Cuba, nor can it cover up its deplorable track record of indiscriminate mass spying around the world,” Wang added.
The allegations about a Chinese spying facility in Cuba caused a frenzy among China hawks in Washington and led to calls for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to again cancel his plans to visit China. US officials have said Blinken will travel to China on June 18, but Wang did not confirm the plans. “As to the visit you asked about, I have nothing to share,” he told reporters.
China hawks in Congress are demanding the Biden administration take action over the alleged Chinese spying facility in Cuba. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said if China establishes a spy facility in Cuba, it would be a “direct assault upon the United States.”
But if China is looking to gather intelligence on the US from Cuba, it would be a response to the US running surveillance operations near the Chinese coast. The US is constantly flying surveillance flights over the South China Sea, is suspected of having signals intelligence capabilities in Taiwan, and helps India spy on Chinese troops near the disputed border in the Himalayas.
Why wouldn’t Cuba allow a Chinese spy facility to be set up? Are they afraid it might spoil their relations with the USA?
… and bring on a sanctions regime?
Is that what is referred to as chutzpah? I mean is the US not known for spying on other countries via ‘partners’?
It’s called “exceptionalism”. In the rules based international order Washington makes the rules. China and Russia are having difficulty learning this.
You forgot to mention that exceptionalists don’t feel any obligation to adhere to their own rules.
Senator BM plans to smoke out those Chinese spies with his BS. A China-gate similar to Russia-gate will follow. It’s overkill. I don’t think it’s needed. Most of us believe deep in our hearts that China is an enemy. We’re ready to all die in a war with China but only if we don’t die in a war with Russia first. We’re on Board because we’re insane, including people here in this space. (Sarcasm alert)
China Denies Allegations That It’s Spying on the US from Cuba
China cannot deny that they have built a huge spy-balloon launching pad in Cuba
Next they will develop Stealth Balloon bases in Cuba so no one can see their weather balloons. The Deep State will say that’s what China is up to.
I wonder what they hope to discover that they can’t already see from satellite.
Meanwhile, US spy planes are guiding sea drones in their attacks on Russian ships guarding the TurkStream pipeline in the Black Sea. We attacked Germany when we blew up NordStream. These actions suggest an attack on critical assets owned by Turkey could also be in the works. (Such an attack would also harm Hungary and other NATO nations.)
Assuming that the basic premise — an agreement for a “Chinese listening post” in Cuba — is true, it strikes me as more a diplomatic relations thing between China and Cuba than as anything especially concerning for the US.
Look at all the US bases of various sizes and functions around the world. Not only are they unnecessary even for an attempt at global hegemony, they are more costly to arm, maintain, and staff than the alternatives for the same functions.
BUT!
When the US regime goes to some cash-poor regime and says “we’d like to pay you an astronomical amount of money to lease some land, pour even more money into it to build facilities, then staff it with people who make 100 times your average per capita income and will be out in town spending that money, and sure, we can shake loose some other aid and bribe money too,” they make friends (and, in many cases, pawns).
Cuba can use friends for all kinds of reasons. China can specifically use friends in the western hemisphere so that as its blue-water navy grows it has ports of call to choose from. Especially ports of call that give it good reason to conduct “freedom of navigation patrols” through the Florida Strait whenever the US scoffs at its protests against similar patrols through the Taiwan Strait.
This could, as you say, be a diplomatic outreach.
I see the point you made in your last paragraph, but I was not aware of any ambitions by China to create a blue water navy. Nor have I seen any evidence that China is considering a show of force in the Florida Strait, or any other waterway, such as the Malacca Strait, which would make more sense to send a message.
“I was not aware of any ambitions by China to create a blue water navy”
The PLA Navy is well into its second decade of expansion into “blue water” territory, starting with the 2011 completion of their its first carrier, the Liaoning. They’ve increased the tempo of visits to distant ports of call and begun participating in operations and exercises further abroad (over the last couple of years, US Coast Guard has reported PLA Navy vessels in the Bering Sea area, for example; and since, IIRC, 2015 there have been PLA Navy port calls in Havana).
“Spying” is such a loaded word and besides the Chinese do speak a different language in that different ulture.
I bet “spying” does not translate to what they believe they are doing hense their opposition to calling their observation activities such a dastardly word as “spying”.
After all, we don’t spy on the Chinese out of every NGO we have running around in their neighborhood do we? Just most of them…..
But I bet we expect reports from everyone on what they are doing with our money and what everyone in the area they are in are up to too.
I also bet the Chinese might believe we are up to no good in their neighborhood just as we believe they might not have our best interests in mind with their Chinese trade office/charity/spy-nest.
Typical Biden.
First they lie about the spy base.
Then they try to tell everyone it’s actually true, ignore what you just said the day before and try to tell everyone it started before you got to office.
Of course that is immediately said to be a lie by those accused and will pretty well establish that is just another lie by Biden.