WSJ-China Reach Deal With Cuba To Place US Monitoring Station On Island

(MNI) London-The Wall St. Journal is reportingthat China have reached an agreement with the gov't of Cuba to place an electronic surveillance station on the Caribbean island focused on the United States in what Washington, D.C., could see as a significant security threat.

• Report states that Beijing will pay Havana 'several billion dollars' for the facility. Alleges that the base will be able to monitor US ships and electronic communications throughout the southeastern United States.
• Inevitably, the involvement of a US strategic competitor placing security apparatus in communist Cuba will draw comparisons to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. It should be noted that the placement of a listening station is leagues below the planned Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles on Cuba in terms of perceived security threats.
• The future of Sino-American relations remains in flux, with positive signs (CIA head visit to Beijing, potential Blinken talks with senior officials) coming amid close-proximity misses between US and Chinese vessels in the strait of Taiwan, making it difficult to see whether ties could improve in the coming months or remain in the deep-freeze.