And the Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing and Havana had struck a secret deal to establish a Chinese wiretapping facility on the Caribbean island that could monitor communications along the southeastern United States, knowing that the headquarters of the Army’s Southern and Central Command is located in Florida.
The newspaper quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying China would pay Cuba “several billion dollars” to build the facility.
“I saw this news article. It’s not accurate,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told MSNBC.
He added: “What I can say is that we have been concerned since day one of this administration about Chinese influence activities around the world, certainly in this hemisphere and in this region. close.”
The report of the American newspaper comes in full tension in the relations between Washington and Beijing on the background of the support of the first to the autonomy of Taiwan, which China says it is determined to restore by force if necessary.
China strengthens its presence in the world
Chinese President Xi Jinping is pushing to accelerate the expansion of his country’s security presence around the world, in a bid to keep pace with the widespread deployment of the US military across all continents. A base in Cuba, located just 150 kilometers off the coast of southern Florida, would pose the most direct threat to the American continent to date. The Soviet Union had electronic espionage facilities in Cuba to monitor the United States. In 1962, when Moscow established a nuclear missile base on Cuba, the United States imposed a blockade on the island, which threatened to confront the two superpowers of the time, before reaching an agreement to resolve the crisis. The Soviet Union withdrew its nuclear missiles from Cuba, while Washington withdrew its nuclear-capable missiles from Turkey, after the Soviets saw it as a threat to them. The Chinese move to Cuba comes after a high-altitude Chinese balloon was spotted over the United States earlier this year, and it traveled west to east across the country over sensitive military installations before to be shot down by an American fighter off the east coast. .
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