[elfsight_social_share_buttons id=”1″]
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has now been officially brought into the conversation surrounding China building a spy base in Cuba, and is apparently blaming the Trump administration for China’s actions.
For context, last week, outlets including the Wall Street Journal and POLITICO broke a story that China was reportedly trying to work with Cuba on building a spy base. The point of the base would be to have close espionage activity near the United States at a time of high tensions between the two nations.
Soon after these reports dropped, the White House resolutely denied them with Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby calling them inaccurate and reassuring their work to defend the nation.
But Monday, FISM News reported on an unnamed White House official confirming the existence of a Chinese spy base in the island nation already. This obviously created confusion given Kirby’s statement.
But the official clarified that the base was built back in 2019 during the Trump administration. Following this news, Kirby was forced to reckon with his declaration that the reporting was “inaccurate,” saying he stood by his interpretation.
Understandably, people are trying to get to the bottom of this any way they can. Enter Secretary Blinken, who addressed the matter later on Monday during a joint press conference with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
When a reporter asked Blinken about the Chinese base in Cuba, Blinken confirmed its existence, but threw blame at the Trump administration for not “making enough progress” on the issue.
Blinken then added that the Biden administration was working on a diplomatic solution, one he believes has already shown progress.
Secretary Blinken is expected to travel to Beijing later this month after postponing an earlier trip in March due to the infamous Chinese spy balloon.