Cuba denies report that China is establishing spy base on island country

By Firdevs Bulut Kartal and Sinan Dogan

TORONTO (AA) - Cuba on late Thursday denied claims that China and the Havana administration have agreed to establish a base on the island country to spy on the US.

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Cuban and Chinese officials reached an agreement to establish a facility to conduct what is known as signals intelligence collection.

Rejecting the report, Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, Cuban deputy foreign minister, called it totally “untrue and unfounded” and said that such news was “promoted with the malicious intention to justify the unprecedented reinforcement of the economic blockade, destabilization and the aggression against Cuba.”

He said that the Cuban government rejects any “foreign military presence in Latin America and the Caribbean, including the numerous military bases and troops of the US, and especially the military base that illegally occupies a portion of our national territory in the province of Guantánamo.”

The US has also denied the report.