Cuba is messing with the US: the report on espionage is “false”.

Her diplomacy Bucket yesterday Thursday (8/6) called the publication in the American press “false and non-existent” about an alleged agreement that will allow the China to install a spy base on the island, while the White House and the Pentagon assured that it was “not accurate”.

“The American newspaper Wall Street Journal published (…) the completely false and non-existent information according to which there is an agreement between Cuba and China of a military nature to install an alleged espionage base,” Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cosio told reporters in Havana.

Cuba “rejects any foreign military presence” in Latin America, “including the numerous US military bases and troops”, he added and estimated that “slanders of this kind are often manufactured by US officials”.

According to the report of the Wall Street Journal, which cites two anonymous sources in the US government, the secret agreement calls for an electronic communications interception station to be set up on the Caribbean islandabout 200 kilometers off the coast of Florida, where important US military installations are located.

The financial newspaper pointed out, as reported by the Athens News Agency, that China, with which the US is in increasingly tough competition, will allocate “billions of dollars” to Cuba to build this base.

The American television network CNN also spoke of such an agreement, citing “sources close to the intelligence services” of the United States.

“The US has been informed of the existence of this plan in recent weeks,” according to the network, but “it is unclear whether China has already begun building the interception base.”

“I saw the report, it is not accurate” says the representative of the National Security Council of the American presidency

The White House said Thursday that the WSJ report is “inaccurate.”

“I saw the article. It’s not accurate,” the spokesman for the US president’s national security council, John Kirby, said on MSNBC.

“What I can tell you is that our administration has been concerned since day one about China’s activities to increase its influence around the world, particularly in our hemisphere,” Mr. Kerby said. “We are watching this very closely,” he added.

“Based on the information we have, this is not accurate. We have not been informed of any facilities in China and Cuba, of any type of espionage base,” Pentagon spokesman Wing Commander Pat Ryder said during a press conference, adding that Washington is “constantly” monitoring Beijing’s relations with of Havana.

“Deeply worried”

Still, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner and his Republican colleague Marco Rubio, the heads of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said they were “deeply troubled” by the information published by the Wall Street Journal.

“The United States must respond to China’s continued brazen attacks against our national security,” the two senators argued.

Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly wants to expand China’s military presence internationally to rival that of the US, whose armed forces are present on all continents.

But the establishment of a base on Cuban soil, so close to Florida, would represent a new level for Beijing and would be perceived in Washington as an unprecedented threat.

“We must make it clear that China’s installation of a spy base 100 miles from Florida and the US would be unacceptable,” the senators insisted.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union had electronic espionage facilities in Cuba.

In 1962, the US observed missile launch pads. President John F. Kennedy decided to impose a naval blockade on the island, and for several days, the threat of open conflict – without ruling out the use of nuclear weapons – between the two superpowers had reached a fever pitch.

The USSR eventually decided not to install missiles in Cuba, and the US withdrew its own missiles from Turkey.

In January and February, a Chinese balloon that Washington claimed was a “spy” flew high above the US territory until it was shot down by a fighter jet, an episode that further escalated tensions between the US and China.