Blinken credits US diplomacy for slowing China's expansion of spying, basing overseas

Ahead of his visit to Beijing later this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said that the Biden administration has taken diplomatic measures that have slowed down China’s attempt to project military strength around the world.

When asked at a press conference about Washington’s response to a Wall Street Journal report last week that cited US officials saying a new spying effort was underway on Cuba, Blinken said China’s efforts in Cuba were part of a global effort by Beijing to expand its presence overseas, and that US actions to address this since President Joe Biden came to power in January 2021 have produced results.

However, the top diplomat did not specify what those results were.

“Our experts assess that our diplomatic efforts have slowed down this effort by the PRC,” Blinken said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

China on Monday said the allegations of spying were false and it denounced the US government and media for releasing what it called inconsistent information.

“On the alleged spy activities of China in Cuba, this is a piece of false information,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, told a regular press conference.

“Over the past two days, we have seen the U.S. government and media releasing a great deal of inconsistent information on the so-called allegation … This is a display of the ‘self-contradictory USA’,” Wang said.

Blinken said the administration of former President Donald Trump knew of a 2019 Chinese upgrade of intelligence-collection facilities in Cuba but efforts to address this “weren’t making enough progress”.

Incoming Biden administration officials were briefed on efforts by China to “expand their overseas logistics, basing, collection infrastructure, to allow them to project and sustain military power at a greater distance”, including the upgrade in Cuba, Blinken said.

Biden instructed his team to take a more direct approach that has included engaging governments that are considering hosting Chinese bases and exchanging information with them, Blinken said.

“We’ve been executing on that approach quietly, carefully – but, in our judgment, with results – ever since. I can’t get into every step that we’ve taken, but the strategy begins with diplomacy,” Blinken said.

With inputs from agencies

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