https://sputnikglobe.com/20230620/wsj-tries-again-reports-claim-china-in-advanced-talks-to-build-training-base-in-cuba-1111346060.html
What's Behind Reports China is in ‘Advanced’ Talks to Build Training Base in Cuba
What's Behind Reports China is in ‘Advanced’ Talks to Build Training Base in Cuba
Sputnik International
A Tuesday report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) claimed that China is in talks with Cuba to build a joint training base on the north coast of the Caribbean island.
2023-06-20T20:50+0000
2023-06-20T20:50+0000
2023-06-21T05:22+0000
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A Tuesday report in the US media has claimed China is in talks with Cuba to build a joint training base on the north coast of the Caribbean island.The report is based on information from anonymous “current and former US officials” and claims the talks “are at an advanced stage but not concluded.” It also alleges the Biden administration has reached out to Havana to try and delay or block the deal.The White House has not commented on the reports, nor the Cuban government; the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, referred the paper to a previous Chinese government statement about alleged China-Cuba negotiations that called Washington an “expert in chasing shadows” in other countries and meddling in their affairs.Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters on Tuesday she was “not aware” of the report, adding that “we hope relevant parties will focus their time and efforts on doing things that are conducive to mutual trust and regional peace, stability and development.”Previous 'Inaccurate' ReportThe report comes less than two weeks after the media outlet claimed Beijing and Havana had signed a multibillion-dollar deal to build a spy base in Cuba to conduct signals intelligence on the US. China and Cuba both denounced the report as “totally mendacious and unfounded” and even the White House National Security Council called the report “inaccurate.”A few days later, another anonymous Biden administration official told several US media outlets that China had operated a listening post in Cuba since 2019 - a situation US President Joe Biden “inherited” from his predecessor, former US President Donald Trump.A Cold DetenteThe reports have come amid a visit to China by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met with senior Chinese diplomatic leaders, including President Xi Jinping, Foreign Minister Qin Gang, and the Communist Party’s foreign policy chief, Wang Yi. The trip was delayed from February after the US shot down a Chinese high altitude balloon that Washington claimed was a spying device, but which Beijing said was a civilian scientific airship that was blown off course.The island is a Chinese province in rebellion, which has been controlled by a US-backed government since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. It is about 100 miles from mainland China - roughly the same distance as Cuba is from the US - and has long been host to US forces, which were recently revealed as having secretly operated there for years. Washington has recognized the “One China” policy since 1979, when it dropped formal relations with Taipei and opened them with Beijing, and China’s protests over US “provocations” by supporting Taiwan are typically rooted in this agreement.The US has doubled down on this open but informal support amid its strategic move toward “great power competition” with Russia and China, seeing Taiwan as a key stronghold in the “First Island Chain,” a string of archipelagos off the Asian coast with which Washington hopes to contain Chinese expansion.Alienating CubaIn addition, under Biden the US has maintained the numerous restrictions against Cuba put in place by the prior Trump administration, including 243 coercive measures that had been removed under the Obama administration. The measures forbid most trade and travel to Cuba by Americans and American companies. The United Nations has voted for years to condemn the US blockade, and the Cuban delegation to the UN has denounced the sanctions and the chronic shortages of basic goods they cause as “an act of genocide and economic warfare" against the Cuban people.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230608/totally-false-cuba-swats-down-us-media-reports-of-hosting-chinese-spy-base-1111014159.html
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230619/limited-progress-from-xi-blinken-talks-but-core-us-china-issues-likely-beyond-compromise-1111300783.html
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wall street journal; cuba; china; training; base
wall street journal; cuba; china; training; base
What's Behind Reports China is in ‘Advanced’ Talks to Build Training Base in Cuba
20:50 GMT 20.06.2023 (Updated: 05:22 GMT 21.06.2023) While China has zero combat troops in the Western Hemisphere, the United States has more than 350,000 deployed across the Pacific region, including more than 100 on Taiwan, an island it formally recognizes as being Chinese territory. Washington says it is safeguarding the “rules-based international order” by doing so.
A Tuesday report in the US media has claimed China is in talks with Cuba to build a joint training base on the north coast of the Caribbean island.
The report is based on information from anonymous “current and former US officials” and claims the talks “are at an advanced stage but not concluded.” It also alleges the Biden administration has reached out to Havana to try and delay or block the deal.
According to the paper, the information was contained in “highly classified new US intelligence,” described by officials as “convincing but fragmentary.” They said US officials have “different levels of alarm” about the reports.
The White House has not commented on the reports, nor the Cuban government; the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, referred the paper to a previous Chinese government statement about alleged China-Cuba negotiations that called Washington an “expert in chasing shadows” in other countries and meddling in their affairs.
Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
told reporters on Tuesday she was “not aware” of the report, adding that “we hope relevant parties will focus their time and efforts on doing things that are conducive to mutual trust and regional peace, stability and development.”
Previous 'Inaccurate' Report
The report comes less than two weeks
after the media outlet claimed Beijing and Havana had signed a multibillion-dollar deal to build a spy base in Cuba to conduct signals intelligence on the US. China and Cuba both denounced the report as “totally mendacious and unfounded” and even the White House National Security Council called the report “inaccurate.”
A few days later, another anonymous Biden administration official told several US media outlets that China had operated a listening post in Cuba since 2019 - a situation US President Joe Biden “inherited” from his predecessor, former US President Donald Trump.
"This is an ongoing issue, and not a new development, and the arrangement as characterized in the reporting does not comport with our understanding," the official was quoted as saying.
The reports have come amid a visit to China by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met with senior Chinese diplomatic leaders, including President Xi Jinping, Foreign Minister Qin Gang, and the Communist Party’s foreign policy chief, Wang Yi. The trip was delayed from February after the US shot down a Chinese high altitude balloon that Washington claimed was a spying device, but which Beijing said was a civilian scientific airship that was blown off course.
The visit was aimed at returning US-China relations to the cold detente established by Xi and Biden at their Bali meeting last November, which followed a nadir in relations caused by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022.
The island is a Chinese province in rebellion, which has been controlled by a US-backed government since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. It is about 100 miles from mainland China - roughly the same distance as Cuba is from the US - and has long been host to US forces, which were recently revealed as having secretly operated there for years.
Washington has recognized the “One China” policy since 1979, when it dropped formal relations with Taipei and opened them with Beijing, and China’s protests over US “provocations” by supporting Taiwan are typically rooted in this agreement.
The US has doubled down on this open but informal support amid its strategic move toward “great power competition” with Russia and China, seeing Taiwan as a key stronghold in the “First Island Chain,” a string of archipelagos off the Asian coast with which Washington hopes to contain Chinese expansion.
In addition, under Biden the US has maintained the numerous restrictions against Cuba put in place by the prior Trump administration, including
243 coercive measures that had been removed under the Obama administration.
The measures forbid most trade and travel to Cuba by Americans and American companies. The United Nations has voted for years to condemn the US blockade, and the Cuban delegation to the UN has denounced the sanctions and the chronic shortages of basic goods they cause as “an act of genocide and economic warfare" against the Cuban people.
