—— Washington’s insincerity hinders progress in China-US dialogue
BEIJING: China on Friday criticized the US’ long-term interference in Cuba’s internal affairs and urged it to stop undermining the political foundation of bilateral relations while claiming to build “guardrails” on China-US relations after the US media’s hype of China’s so-called deal of building a spy station in Cuba.
The US media’s latest sensational reports of “China’s eavesdropping facility” in Cuba, which reminds people of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 – one of the fiercest scenes of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union – could be a new farce staged by the media and some US politicians as “good cop, bad cop” with the purpose of gaining the “upper hand” and pressuring China in any possible dialogue, analysts said, referring to a simultaneous US revelation of top diplomat Antony Blinken’s possible visit to China.
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal claimed that China has reached a secret deal with Cuba to establish an electronic eavesdropping facility on the island roughly 160 kilometers from Florida. More Western and US media followed Wall Street Journal in reporting the “news.” CNN also claimed that Cuba has agreed to allow China to build a spying facility on the island, citing two sources familiar with the intelligence.
However, Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, a US Defense Department spokesperson, denied the report and said, “We are not aware of China and Cuba developing a new type of spy station.” John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said the report is not “accurate” while also noting the US’ “real concerns” about China’s relations with Cuba, Reuters reported.
Cuban Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio also refuted the Wall Street Journal report as “totally mendacious and unfounded” and said it is a US fabrication meant to justify Washington’s decades-old economic embargo against the island.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press conference on Friday that spreading rumors and slander is a common tactic of the US. The US is an expert on chasing shadows and meddling in other countries’ internal affairs. The US is the global champion of hacking and superpower of surveillance.
Wang Wenbin noted that the US has long illegally occupied Cuba’s Guantánamo Bay for secretive activities and imposed a blockade on Cuba for over 60 years. The US needs to take a hard look at itself, stop interfering in Cuba’s internal affairs under the pretext of freedom, democracy and human rights, immediately lift its economic, commercial and financial blockade on Cuba, and act in ways conducive to improving relations with Cuba and regional peace and stability, not otherwise. –The Daily Mail-Global Time news exchange item
