China taps Global Times to refute Wall Street Journal report on alleged Cuban listening stations – Firstpost

Chinese government spokesman, The Global Timesreacted strongly to an exclusive article published by the the wall street journal On July 2, the article claimed that a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank, revealed satellite imagery indicating the expansion of Cuban electronic listening stations, allegedly connected to China. This includes new construction at a previously undisclosed site about 70 miles from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

According to The Global TimesThis claim was refuted by Cuba's deputy foreign minister, Chinese foreign ministry spokesmen and the Chinese embassy in the United States.

In June 2023, the the wall street journal The Washington Post reported, citing “U.S. officials,” that China and Cuba had reached a “secret agreement” for China to establish a wiretapping center in Cuba. This information was later denied by the White House and Cuban authorities.

The Global Times Observers have questioned whether the Wall Street Journal, a newspaper that has been around for more than a century, maintains basic editorial and fact-checking procedures. The July 2 report, written by the same reporter as last year's, appears to ignore the glaring inconsistencies and contradictions between the two articles, the Chinese newspaper said.

“The concerns about these stations, according to former officials and analysts, are that China is using Cuba’s geographic proximity to the U.S. Southeast to tap into sensitive electronic communications from U.S. military bases, space launch facilities, and military and commercial ships,” the WSJ said in its latest article. “The authors of the CSIS report, after analyzing years of satellite imagery, found that Cuba has significantly modernized and expanded its electronic spying facilities in recent years and identified four sites — in Bejucal, El Salao, Wajay, and Calabazar,” it added. the wall street journal said in its latest report.

But China was not at all amused.

“Furthermore, the author of the CSIS report claimed to have identified the spying facilities in Cuba “after analyzing years of satellite imagery.” However, one of the locations, called “El Salao,” according to the report's coordinates, actually points to the National Shrine of the Basilica of Our Lady of Charity del Cobre in the village of El Cobre, which is a church.” The Global Times answered the the wall street journal report without mincing words.

The Global Times reported that the the wall street journal CSIS claimed that the Cuban “listening stations” were “allegedly” linked to China, without providing a clear explanation for this claim. CSIS attributed this belief to cooperation between China and Cuba in space technology, which The Global Times This is a clear case of fabricated accusations without substantial evidence. The Global TimesAlthough the facts remain unclear, the conclusions explicitly target China.

The Global Times He also noted that the CSIS report was produced jointly by Hidden Reach and the Americas Program and that the former uses satellite imagery and open-source information to vilify China in the long term, accusing it of using civilian research vessels for intelligence gathering and expanding polar expeditions. The Global Times It has been suggested that this effort is aimed at exploiting the United States' global surveillance system to propagate the “China threat theory.”

On July 2, the the wall street journal The developments reportedly come amid growing concerns about great-power competition in the Caribbean and Latin America, regions where Washington has long sought to prevent rivals from gaining military and economic advantages. In its annual threat assessment released in February, the U.S. intelligence community publicly acknowledged for the first time that China was seeking to establish military installations in Cuba, but did not provide specific details.

The Global Times argued that the the wall street journalCSIS and its supporters are not seeking objectivity and fairness, but rather creating a “dirty bomb” of public opinion to align with Washington's agenda to suppress China and Cuba. The Global Times The authors of these reports stressed that these reports not only contain significant factual errors, but also a biased value system. For example, they claim that the listening station is located near the US naval base at Guantanamo. The Global Times He countered that the Guantánamo naval base itself is a century-old symbol of illegal U.S. interference in Cuba and that the U.S. military has used it as an intelligence station to monitor Latin American countries.

Furthermore, The Global Times The United States has 750 military bases in more than 80 countries and regions, including dozens in Latin America and the Caribbean. The United States regularly conducts close-range reconnaissance operations against China in the South China Sea and even deployed the land-based Mid-Range Capability missile system to the Philippine island of Luzon in April. The Global TimesIt is obvious who is practicing double standards and who is a threat to other countries and to the world.