The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) denied the existence of spy bases on the island that are linked to China and accused The Wall Street Journal of “intimidation” and of publishing unsubstantiated reports.
“Persist The Wall Street Journal in launching a Cuba-related intimidation campaign“, wrote in X the deputy head of MINREX, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, reports the web portal Cuban Diary.
The official said the outlet did not cite any verifiable source or provide evidence in its publication.
The Wall Street Journal The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Tuesday revealed new images captured from space that show the issue became a flashpoint in Caribbean geopolitical strategies and US-China relations, a year after the issue became a flashpoint in Caribbean geopolitical strategies and US-China relations. growth of electronic listening stations on the Island thatallegedly, would be linked to the Chinese regime.
According to the CSIC, The new photographs show the construction of a center for this purpose some 128 kilometers from the Guantanamo Naval Base.“China’s ambitions to expand its global intelligence gathering capabilities have brought it to the doorstep of the United States. While China’s activities on the island remain shrouded in secrecy, satellite imagery analyzed by CSIS provides the most recent and comprehensive assessment of where China is most likely to operate,” the center said in its report.
“The concern about the stations is that China could take advantage of Cuba’s geographic proximity to the southeastern United States to capture confidential electronic communications from American military bases.“CSIS specialists told the newspaper, expressing fear that “data from space launch facilities and military and commercial vessels could be leaked.”
For Fernandez de Cossio, The Wall Street Journal “search scare the public with legends about Chinese military bases that do not exist and no one has seenincluding the US embassy in Cuba.”
Chinese facilities on the island “could Strengthening China’s use of telecommunications networks to spy on American citizens“, said to The Wall Street Journal Leland Lazarus, an expert on China-Latin America relations at Florida International University. This comes as the US Department of Commerce is investigating Chinese telecommunications companies China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, based on suspicions that these companies may be using their internet businesses in the US “to access US data that is presumably subsequently handed over to Beijing.”
The CSIC stressed that “Cuba has significantly improved and expanded its electronic spying facilities in recent years and There are four locations: Bejucal, El Salado, Wajay and Calabazar.”
The collection of information from the so-called Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) “is a complex task that requires specialized equipment, that is, antennas optimized for the characteristics of the signal of its targets. The size, quantity, orientation and arrangement of these antennas determine their capabilities and functions,” explained the CSIC, and its specialists specified that their research continues in this regard, to clarify the real scope of the listening bases in Cuba and China’s involvement in them.
In June 2023, Fernández de Cossío himself described a publication in The Wall Street Journal on an alleged agreement between the governments of Cuba and China, on military matters, for the installation of a spy base.
He then said that these were “fallacies promoted with the perfidious intention of justifying the unprecedented tightening” of Washington’s embargo against Havana, and destabilization campaigns.
Last year, U.S. officials said China had been operating an intelligence unit in Cuba for years and upgraded it in 2019.
Asked about the latest report, the spokesman for the PentagonMaj. Gen. Pat Ryder, said: “We know that (China) is going to continue to try to enhance its presence in Cuba.”
“So we continue to monitor this closely, taking countermeasures,” he told reporters.
Source: EDITORIAL/Diario de Cuba
