Clandestine Chinese Base Found Some 100 Miles from USA, And It's Been Operating for Years: Official Source
The Biden administration said Saturday that China has been spying on America from Cuba since 2019.
The admission came two days after the Wall Street Journal said a new agreement had been reached in which China would have a spy base on the island. The Journal report said Cuba would reap billions of dollars in revenue from the deal.
On Thursday, the White House said the Journal got it wrong, but on Saturday, revealed that the truth was even worse.
“This is an ongoing issue, and not a new development, and the arrangement as characterized in the reporting does not comport with our understanding,” an official told the Journal.
The official told the Journal that China’s “intelligence collection facilities” in Cuba were upgraded in 2019, saying the change was “well-documented in the intelligence record.”
It said the Chinese government “will keep trying to enhance its presence in Cuba, and we will keep working to disrupt it.
In speaking to Politico, the official stressed the Chinese presence in Cuba existed when the Biden administration took power.
“When this administration took office in January 2021, we were briefed on a number of sensitive PRC efforts around the world to expand its overseas logistics, basing, and collection infrastructure globally to allow the [military] to project and sustain military power at greater distance,” the official said, calling the People’s Republic of China by an acronym.
2) Some former Trump officials I’ve spoken with are unaware of these alleged 2019 developments. Is this the balloon incident all over again, where Biden’s team claimed spy balloons made incursions under Trump, before backtracking and saying that if there were incursions then,…
— Morgan Ortagus (@MorganOrtagus) June 11, 2023
Several members of Congress responded angrily to the White House comments.
“President Biden needs to stop ignoring the threat from China,” Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio said.
“In less than 48 hours, officials from the Biden administration have contradicted themselves multiple times about whether or not the Chinese Communist Party is spying on the United States. This is unacceptable.”
Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York said Congress needs to investigate.
“If the CCP is using a spy facility in Cuba, as media reports have alleged, then Congress has a duty to investigate the matter rather than accept at face value the denials of the Defense Department,” he said.
Bipartisan concern was expressed by the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee in a joint statement.
“The United States must respond to China’s ongoing and brazen attacks on our nation’s security. We must be clear that it would be unacceptable for China to establish an intelligence facility within 100 miles of Florida and the United States, in an area also populated with key military installations and extensive maritime traffic,” Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said.
4) Regardless of whether these facilities are new or old, why is WH downplaying it? If China is building or has built an intelligence facility within 100 miles of our shores and key military installations, we need to make it clear to Cuba, China and others that this is…
— Morgan Ortagus (@MorganOrtagus) June 11, 2023
Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin linked the report about Cuba to the Chinese spy balloon that transited the United States earlier this year.
“Why did the Biden administration previously deny these reports of a CCP spy base in Cuba? Why did they downplay the ‘silly’ CCP spy balloon?” he said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party according to The New York Times.
To Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas, China’s actions show an intent to prepare for war, according to Fox News.
“The most valuable part of a conflict is information. The person that controls the information, the person that intercepts the information. If you can control the information of the conflict, you’re controlling that conflict. China understands that. The United States certainly understands that,” he said.
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