ALEXANDER WARD and JOE GOULD
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such a pact between China and Cuba could threaten to derail the Biden administration\u2019s efforts to \u201cthaw\u201d its frosty relations with Beijing. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to visit China in the coming weeks<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Wall Street Journal, which was first to report on the discussions<\/a>, said Beijing and Havana reached a \u201csecret agreement\u201d whereby China pays Cuba billions of dollars for a facility. The two officials told POLITICO they couldn\u2019t confirm that there was a finalized deal, only that China was in discussions with Cuba about spying on the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Thursday morning, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby didn\u2019t confirm any negotiations between China and Cuba but said the administration was watching China\u2019s movements in the region closely. After publication, Kirby told POLITICO the reports were \u201cnot accurate\u201d without specifying which details were wrong. He added: \u201cWe remain confident that we are able to meet all our security commitments at home and in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the top two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a Thursday afternoon statement that they were \u201cdeeply disturbed\u201d by the reports. \u201cIt would be unacceptable for China to establish an intelligence facility within 100 miles of Florida and the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe urge the Biden administration to take steps to prevent this serious threat to our national security and sovereignty,\u201d they continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cuba\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fern\u00e1ndez de Cossio said in a statement that the WSJ story was full of \u201ctotally false and unfounded information\u201d and that Cuba rejects the presence of a foreign military throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The Cuban Embassy did not respond to a question about any talks with China about a deal to spy on the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report comes as the U.S. is trying to restore more regular military contacts with Beijing. CIA Director William Burns made a secret trip to China last month to keep the lines of communication between Washington and Beijing open. President Joe Biden dispatched the spy chief in hopes of reviving higher-level conversations between the two powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Defense Department official said the Pentagon was aware of China\u2019s attempts to invest in infrastructure around the world, including in the Western hemisphere, that may have military purposes and will continue to monitor the efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The CIA declined a request to comment on the talks. The State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Chinese embassy in Washington declined to comment on the issue, saying in a statement \u201cwe are not aware of the case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The revelation already has members of Congress worried about the echoes of America\u2019s last great power rivalry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chair of the House Select China Committee, said in a statement the Biden administration should consider retaliatory actions including \u201cending Huawei export licenses, restricting outbound investment in crucial sectors of the PRC\u2026and preventing Chinese Communist Party land purchases near military bases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) said Blinken should not travel to China following the revelation and the recent harassment of American ships<\/a> and aircraft in the Indo-Pacific region<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Chinese Communist Party is executing the Soviet Union\u2019s playbook,\u201d said Waltz, a member of the House Intelligence and Armed Services committees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Soviet Union operated its largest signals intelligence site in Lourdes, just outside of Havana, a facility that closed after 2001. \u201cIf it\u2019s China\u2019s intent to reopen it, this will be the largest spy base once again,\u201d Waltz said. \u201cIf that\u2019s not evidence enough that we\u2019re in a new Cold War, I don\u2019t know what is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1962, the United States discovered Soviet missiles in Cuba, leading to an infamous crisis that brought the world to the nuclear brink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lawmakers from both parties were alarmed at the news on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf true, it just goes to show where the Cuban regime is all along. They are an adversary to the United States, and to allow the Chinese to construct a signals intelligence facility in their country is a direct assault upon the United States,\u201d said Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez (D-N.J.). \u201cI hope the administration will think about how they will react if it\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some Republicans said the development was a sign that Biden\u2019s efforts to cool tensions with China are failing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is a disaster for the Biden administration. It shows that what they\u2019re trying, their policies are not working at all, the aggression of China continues,\u201d said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). \u201cHere they\u2019re flying over to China, maybe as we speak, to grovel to Beijing. Meanwhile, Beijing is basically giving us the middle finger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hawley said it\u2019s a sign that Congress has misplaced its priorities by supporting Ukraine\u2019s fight against Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m sure we\u2019ll soon be voting on yet another supplemental aid package to Ukraine. Meanwhile, China is literally in our backyard now,\u201d Hawley said. \u201cI don\u2019t know when people on the Hill will wake up to this, but maybe it\u2019ll take the fall of Taiwan, which I\u2019m sure will be next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) demanded swift congressional action against the \u201cgrave threats\u201d posed by a potential Chinese spy base in Cuba. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) should \u201cset dates for security briefings and public hearings in the Senate\u201d about those dangers, Scott said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican candidate for president in 2024, said the news is \u201cstaggering.\u201d \u201cThe real threat is now staring us in the face, not just in the Eastern hemisphere, but now in the West. This is a big deal,\u201d he continued, \u201cand the alarm bells are blaring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n China\u2019s only official foreign military base is in Djibouti. But Beijing has worked for years to establish a stronger presence in the Western hemisphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In March, Gen. Laura Richardson, head of U.S. Southern Command, told the House Armed Services Committee that China was on a \u201crelentless march\u201d to replace the United States as the preeminent regional power. The country, for example, has a military-run space station in Argentina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a risk we can\u2019t ignore,\u201d Richardson said at the hearing. ALEXANDER WARD and JOE GOULD 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 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[183,218,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asian-issues","category-reports-and-articles","category-172"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6690,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6687\/revisions\/6690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Source: Politico)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"