Headline Roundup • June 20th, 2023
China Planning Military Training Base in Cuba, WSJ Reports
Summary from the AllSides News Team
China is planning a joint military training base in Cuba, potentially less than 100 miles from the U.S., officials told The Wall Street Journal (Center bias).
The Details: CNN (Lean Left bias) and Politico (Lean Left bias) confirmed the story. The news broke just days after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. On Tuesday, Blinken told reporters he had “made very clear” that the U.S. “would have deep concerns” about Chinese military or surveillance activities in Cuba.
Previous Reporting: The Journal also broke a story in early June about secret Chinese plans to establish an electronic surveillance facility in Cuba. The White House initially dismissed the report as “not accurate,” but later revealed that it was inaccurate because China had already been operating a spy base in Cuba since at least 2019, describing it as “an issue that this administration inherited.”
How the Media Covered It: News coverage was relatively common and similar across the spectrum, with articles often highlighting Cuba’s proximity to U.S. shores. Opinions were more mixed; while writers at Fox News (Right bias) called on the Biden administration to “take the latest communist threat to our nation seriously,” a writer in the Washington Post (Lean Left bias) asked, “If the United States can spy on China, why can’t China spy on the U.S.?”
Featured Coverage of this Story
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Ding Lin/Xinhua via AP Photo
China and Cuba are in active conversations about creating a new joint military training facility on the island nation 100 miles from the American homeland.
According to a senior U.S. official, Beijing and Havana are discussing what kind of training would take place at the facility and what the leadership structure would look like. Biden administration officials have brought up these talks with their counterparts in Beijing and Havana. It’s unclear, however, how far along China and Cuba are in their chats about the prospects for a deal, the official...
Xinhua/Joaquin Hernandez via Getty Images
China and Cuba are reportedly engaged in high-level discussions to establish a new joint military training facility on the island, raising the prospect of Beijing stationing troops less than 100 miles off U.S. shores.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Tuesday that U.S. intelligence suggests talks about a facility on Cuba’s northern coast "are at an advanced stage but not concluded," as the Biden administration has contacted Cuban officials to stall the agreement and dissuade any course of action due to concerns the Communist nation might have about ceding sovereignty.
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Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images
China and Cuba are negotiating to establish a new joint military training facility on the island, sparking alarm in Washington that it could lead to the stationing of Chinese troops and other security and intelligence operations just 100 miles off Florida’s coast, according to current and former U.S. officials.
