China and Cuba are reportedly in advanced stages of negotiations to place a joint military training facility on the northern shore of Cuba, potentially placing Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers mere miles from Florida.
Today the Wall Street Journal reported that China and Cuba are close to completing talks to place a joint military training facility “just 100 miles off Florida’s coast” that would likely contain “Chinese troops and other security and intelligence operations”, citing current and former U.S. officials.
Though Biden and his representatives have reportedly tried to stall the talks by stoking possible Cuban fears of “ceding sovereignty,” the PLA does not report to the Chinese government, but rather answers directly to the Chinese Communist Party and its leader, General Secretary Xi Jinping, who is also China’s head of state.
This revelation follows a previous report by the Wall Street Journal that claimed Cuba would allow China to place a “new eavesdropping site” in the country, though the White House later claimed the reports were inaccurate then “declassified intelligence to confirm publicly that Chinese intelligence collection facilities have existed in Cuba since at least 2019.”
This type of aggression would NEVER happen under President Trump https://t.co/OXbviDprpY
— Eric Spracklen🇺🇸 (@EricSpracklen) June 20, 2023
The report also emerges shortly after Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China in an apparent bid to stop relations between the powers from deteriorating further.
Blinken met with the Chinese leader but “failed to secure China’s agreement to a U.S. proposal that the two countries resume military-to-military communications to avoid misunderstandings” and only “raised concerns” about developments in Cuba, per the WSJ.
In a press event, Blinken assured reporters that he “made very clear” that the Biden administration “would have deep concerns” about a PLA military facility in Cuba, according to CNN.
“This is something we’re going to be monitoring very, very closely and we’ve been very clear about that,” Blinken told the media. “And we will protect our homeland, we will protect our interests.”
The White House has yet to comment on the latest Wall Street Journal report and Chinese Foreign Military Spokesperson Mao Ning said she was “not aware” of the report when asked this week. The Cuban government has yet to comment on the reports.
