While President Joe Biden has been predicting a ‘thaw ‘ in U.S.-China relations, Beijing is rolling out plans to build a massive spy base in Cuba, U.S. officials say.
The facility, capable of carrying out electronic surveillance on American defense and industrial sectors, will give China a listening post just 100 miles from the U.S. coast. “China and Cuba have reached a secret agreement for China to establish an electronic eavesdropping facility on the island, in a brash new geopolitical challenge by Beijing to the U.S., according to U.S. officials familiar with highly classified intelligence,” The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
China offered to reward their fellow communist regime handsomely for conducting a high-tech spying operation on Cuban soil. Beijing reportedly offered Cubans cash to the tune of “several billion” to set up the spying facility aimed at the U.S., the WSJ reportedly disclosed.
Politico reported:
China is in talks with Cuba to establish a foothold there to spy on the United States, two senior U.S. officials said, a provocative move that already has lawmakers warning about parallels to the Cold War.The officials, granted anonymity to discuss an extremely sensitive intelligence matter, said that China was in direct conversations with Cuba to set up a base on the island nation just 100 miles from the United States. It would allow Beijing to collect signals intelligence on southeastern portions of America, home to many military facilities and major industries. Evidence of the negotiations came to light in recent weeks, the officials said.Such a pact between China and Cuba could threaten to derail the Biden administration’s efforts to “thaw” its frosty relations with Beijing. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to visit China in the coming weeks, a trip that was postponed in February after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon after it traversed North America. Diplomacy with China continues mainly at the economic and trade level, while military-to-military discussions are practically nonexistent.The Wall Street Journal, which was first to report on the discussions, said Beijing and Havana reached a “secret agreement” whereby China pays Cuba billions of dollars for a facility. The two officials told POLITICO they couldn’t confirm that there was a finalized deal, only that China was in discussions with Cuba about spying on the United States.
The damning revelations fly in the face of President Biden’s hoped “thaw” in U.S..-China relations. At last month’s G7 summit in Japan, he downplayed the recent Chinese spy balloon incidents and wished for a reproachment with the communist regime.
On May 23, the New York Times reported President “Biden’s prediction . . . of a coming ‘thaw’ in relations with Beijing, as both sides move beyond what he called the ‘silly’ Chinese act of sending a giant surveillance balloon over the United States.” His “optimism is based on the quiet signals he has received in behind-the-scenes meetings with the Chinese government,” the newspaper declared.
The reports of Chinese spying operations just off the U.S. coast come as Beijing is using its state-owned companies to spy on military and civilians communications networks in the West. Chinese companies control an increasingly large share of the 5G mobile and wireless networks that not only support mobile devices and self-driven cars but also industrial robotics, power plants, traffic flow, and defense infrastructure.
After downplaying the story for days, the Biden administration on Saturday admitted that the Chinese spying base in Cuba was already up and running, and pushed the blame on the previous administration,
“On Saturday, an administration official clarified by saying that the Chinese base in Cuba has already been established, noting that it didn’t happen on their watch,”the Politico reported late Saturday.
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