A Chinese spy base in Cuba that could intercept electronic signals from nearby US military and commercial buildings has been up and running since or before 2019, when the Chinese base was upgraded, according to a Biden administration official.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence, said the spy base was an issue that the Biden administration had inherited from former President Donald J. Trump. After Biden took office, his administration was briefed about the base in Cuba as well as plans China was considering to build similar facilities across the globe, the official said.

The existence of an agreement to build a Chinese spy facility in Cuba prompted a forceful response from Capitol Hill. In a joint statement, Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the panel’s top Republican, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, said they were “deeply disturbed by reports that Havana and Beijing are working together to target the United States and our people”.

John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, denied the reports at the time, saying they were “not accurate”.

But a US official familiar with the intelligence cited in Thursday’s reports insisted that China and Cuba had struck an accord to enhance existing spy capabilities.

Some of the Biden administration’s critics in Congress questioned the motives for the administration’s response.

“Why did the Biden administration previously deny these reports of a CCP spy base in Cuba? Why did they downplay the ‘silly’ CCP spy balloon?” Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, the Republican chairman of the House select committee looking into strategic competition with China, said on Saturday, referring to the Chinese Communist Party by its initials.

A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, Wang Wenbin, said on Friday in response to the reports: “The US is the global champion of hacking and superpower of surveillance.”

New York Times News Service