Chinese Base in Cuba: US Accusations and Beijing’s Denial

The United States accused China of “planning new threats to national security.” Beijing’s answer: only slander from Washington.

China and Cuba are said to have reached a secret agreement for Beijing to build an electronic interception spy base on the island. This was reported by the Wall Street Journal citing some “unspecified sources” in the Washington DC administration. For the American newspaper, “this will be a new challenge for the US,” because a possible electronic espionage center located some 160 kilometers off the coast of Florida, “would allow Chinese intelligence agencies to collect electronic messages throughout the southeastern US with a large number of American military installations.”

China’s sharp reaction to the Wall Street Journal revelations was not long in coming: “Spreading rumors and slander is a tactic commonly used by the USA in international relations. The USA illegally occupied the Guantanamo base for a long time, carried out further subversive activities on the island, and imposed an embargo on Cuba for more than 60 years,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, according to whom the US “should once and for all stop interfering in the internal affairs of Cuba, presenting this intervention as a struggle for freedom, democracy, and human rights, and immediately cancel commercial and financial blockade of the island.”

Meanwhile, China and Russia announced their intention to continue strengthening military cooperation. During a recent video conference, Chinese Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli and his Russian counterpart Valery Gerasimov “exchanged views on deepening cooperation between the two armies,” as stipulated by the agreements reached in the past by the heads of the two states, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

After a joint Russian-Chinese air patrol last week, Russia will be invited to participate in a course of military training organized by the Chinese side and named “Northern Joint 2023.” For his part, General Gerasimov told Liu Zhenli that “cooperation between the two countries performs the function of stabilizing the world situation.” “I am convinced,” Gerasimov stressed, “that our contacts will serve to further strengthen the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership in the field of defense.”