US monitored workers of Chinese telecom giants in Cuba over spying suspicion: Report

The US monitored workers of Chinese telecom giants in Cuba, Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. 

The workers were suspected of carrying out listening operations on the island during the tenure of former US President Donald Trump.

The US officials reviewed intelligence that tracked workers entering and leaving facilities of the Chinese companies Huawei Technologies and ZTE. The facilities are suspected of housing eavesdropping operations in the Caribbean Island, reported the daily, citing people familiar with the matter.

“The intelligence contributed to suspicions within the Trump administration that the telecommunications companies might be playing a role in expanding China’s ability to spy on the US from the island,” it was reported.

According to the daily, it is unclear if the current Biden administration continues tracking workers.

While Huawei denied the reports dubbing them as “such groundless accusations,” ZTE did not respond to a request for comment, the report said.

On Tuesday, Mike Gallagher, the chairman of the bipartisan Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo, requesting clarity on US policies to control the export of American technology to Chinese telecom firms.

“Huawei has assisted the Cuban government in modernizing its telecommunications and internet infrastructure since the 2000s, and the company, along with ZTE and Great Dragon Information Technology Group, maintains a regular business presence on the island,” said Gallagher in the letter.

Gallagher highlighted in his letter China’s official policy of utilizing Chinese commercial entities to boost its military, adding any enhancement of China’s intelligence capabilities in Cuba “is likely” to be aided by Chinese telecommunications companies, the report added.

“He speculated that these companies’ existing business operations in Cuba could provide cover for Chinese intelligence officials to travel to and from the island without creating the same suspicion as official travel,” it added.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that he had told his counterparts in China that the United States “would have deep concerns” about China conducting surveillance and military activities in Cuba.

“This is something we’re going to be monitoring very, very closely, and we’ve been very clear about that. And we will protect our homeland; we will protect our interests,” Blinken told reporters in London when he was asked about discussions between China and Cuba over a joint military training facility in the island nation.

Last week, the Biden administration said that China has long been operating surveillance operations in Cuba after a report suggested Beijing and Havana had reached a deal to station a listening post on the island nation.

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Cuba agreed to host a Chinese listening post in exchange for billions of dollars. The report was quickly denied in both Havana and Beijing, as well as in Washington, where the Biden administration called it inaccurate.

“The original reporting, as we said, was inaccurate,” said National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin denied claims on June 12 about Beijing using Cuba as a spying base, saying it was a “false allegation.”

China’s news agency Xinhua reported on June 13 that Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio also rejected the claims over an “eavesdropping” facility in Cuba and said that the allegations were “fabricated, totally false, and unfounded.”