As per the officials familiar with the matter, China and Cuba had negotiated a covert agreement to build an electronic spying centre on the island about 100 miles (160 km) south of Florida.

The first source claimed that the US only recently became aware of the idea, and it is unknown whether China has already started construction on the surveillance station.

According to the second source who is aware of the intelligence, it appears that an agreement has been reached in principle but that nothing has been done to bring the facility construction forward.

According to the WSJ and U.S. officials familiar with classified intelligence, such a spy facility would enable Beijing to monitor ship traffic and capture electronic communications from the southeastern United States, which is home to major U.S. military facilities.

The U.S. Central Command headquarters is based in Tampa. Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, the largest U.S. military base, is in North Carolina.

It is still unclear what the US can do to stop the construction of a Chinese spying facility in Cuba.

“This report is not accurate,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in a statement on Thursday afternoon. “We have had real concerns about China’s relationship with Cuba, and we have been concerned since day one of the Administration about China’s activities in our hemisphere and around the world. We are closely monitoring it and taking steps to counter it. We remain confident that we are able to meet all our security commitments at home and in the region.”

Kirby initially told the Journal on Thursday morning that he “cannot speak to this specific report,” but that US officials are “well aware of—and have spoken many times to—the People’s Republic of China’s efforts to invest in infrastructure around the world that may have military purposes, including in this hemisphere.”

In Havana, Cuba's Vice Foreign Minister slammed the report as "totally mendacious and unfounded," calling it a fiction by the United States intended to support its long-standing economic boycott on the island. Cuba, he claimed, opposes any foreign military presence in the Caribbean and Latin America.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said, "We are not aware of the case and as a result, we can't give a comment right now."

Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, and Senator Marco Rubio, the panel's vice chair, said in a statement they were "deeply disturbed" by the report and urged the Biden administration "to take steps to prevent this serious threat to our national security and sovereignty."

The rumored agreement comes as Washington and Beijing make cautious moves to defuse tensions that erupted in February when a suspected Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon traversed the country before being shot down by American forces off the East Coast.

It might also cast doubt on a trip to China that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is reportedly preparing to take soon, according to American sources. Earlier, the visit had been canceled due to the spy balloon incident by Washington's senior diplomat.

Image source: Reuters