The United States intelligence sources provided CNN with information stating that the Cuban government had reached an agreement with China to authorize the installation of electronic surveillance equipment in the country, in exchange for economic aid. However, the Pentagon itself and the island’s Foreign Affairs Vice-Minister denied this claim.
The spokesperson for the Pentagon, General Patrick S. Ryder, affirmed that the information was not true, as the United States keeps constantly monitoring both countries and their diplomatic and military relations separately. Additionally, John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National security council expressed that they had seen the report and it was not accurate, he also added that “the United States has real concerns about both countries’ relationship,” but this case was not one of those.
Following the previous statement, the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Cuba, Carlos Fernández de Cossio, also denied the false information found in The Wall Street Journal’s newspaper, on June 8. According to Fernández de Cossio, the information about an agreement for China to set up an espionage base on the Caribbean Island was not true. He added that the data was “totally mendacious and unfounded.”
He also took the opportunity to remark that United States officials frequently spread this type of misinformation. which commonly talks about classified intelligence data being used for espionage or military purposes. For instance, cases like the false existence of Cuban military personnel in Venezuela, the lie about the existence of biological weapons laboratories, or the acoustic attack on US diplomatic personnel.