#Cuba denies Journal story about Chinese spy base

A top Cuban official Thursday issued a flat denial of a Wall Street Journal story that alleged Cuba and China had reached an agreement to install an eavesdropping facility on the island.

Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío issued a strongly worded statement, calling the newspaper’s information “totally mendacious and unfounded.”

“They are all fallacies promoted with the perfidious intention to justify the unprecedented  intensification of the blockade, the destabilization and aggression toward Cuba and to deceive public opinion in the United States and the world,” said Fernández de Cossío.

According to the Journal, U.S. officials with access to “highly classified intelligence” said China would pay Cuba “several billion dollars” to install the base roughly 100 miles south of Florida.

The base would be used to intercept electronic communications throughout the southeastern United States and to monitor ship traffic, according to the report.

According to the Wall Street Journal, National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby denied the alleged intelligence leak, saying “this report is not accurate.”

The Hill has reached out to the NSC for comment.

Fernández de Cossío in his statement blamed U.S. officials for fabricating the story, taking aim at other issues that have spiked tensions across the Straits of Florida.

“Lies of this type have been fabricated frequently by United States officials, who are apparently familiar with intelligence, like those referring to supposed sonic attacks against United States diplomatic personnel, the falsehood about the nonexistent Cuban military presence in Venezuela and the lie about the imaginary existence of biological weapons labs,” said Fernández de Cossío.