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Kirby said the bilateral relationship with China was tense at
the moment, but President Joe Biden was committed to keeping the
lines of communication open.
He told a White House briefing that he would not expect recent
reports about a Chinese spy base in Cuba to affect a planned
visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China later this
week.
"We understand the bilateral relationship with China is tense
right now, and nothing's changed about the fact that the
president wants to keep the lines of communication open with the
PRC," Kirby told reporters, using the initials for the People's
Republic of China.
The Wall Street Journal last week quoted U.S. officials as
saying a new Chinese spying effort was underway on Cuba. China
on Monday denied it was using Cuba as a spying base.
Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez on Monday again rejected
the allegations as false, dismissing them as a U.S. fabrication
meant to justify Washington's decades-old economic embargo
against the island.
Blinken told reporters on Monday that China's efforts in Cuba
were part of a global push by Beijing to expand its presence
overseas, but U.S. actions since Biden came to power in January
2021 had "slowed down this effort."
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal;
additional reporting by Dave Sherwood in Havana, editing by
Jonathan Oatis and Gerry Doyle)
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