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Citing U.S. officials familiar with classified intelligence, the
Wall Street Journal said such a spy installation would allow
Beijing to gather electronic communications from the
southeastern United States, home to many U.S. military bases, as
well as monitor ship traffic.
Cuba and China have reached an agreement in principle, the U.S.
officials said, with China to pay Cuba "several billion dollars"
for the eavesdropping station, according to the Journal.
John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security
Council, told Reuters on Thursday that the report was "not
accurate," but did not say what he thought was inaccurate.
"As we all know, spreading rumours and slander is a common
tactic of the United States," said Wang Wenbin, spokesperson at
the Chinese foreign ministry.
"The United States is also the most powerful hacker empire in
the world, and also veritably a major monitoring nation."
The reported deal could raise questions about a near-term visit
to China that U.S. officials say Secretary of State Antony
Blinken is planning.
Washington and Beijing have been taking tentative steps to ease
tensions that further soured after a suspected Chinese spy
balloon crossed the United States early this year and prompted
Blinken to scrap a previous visit to Beijing.
Cuban Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio dismissed
the report as "totally mendacious and unfounded," calling it a
U.S. fabrication meant to justify Washington's decades-old
economic embargo against the island.
Cuba rejects all foreign military presence in Latin America and
the Caribbean, he said.
(Reporting by Liz Lee; Writing by Ryan Woo; Editing by
Christopher Cushing)
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