Kirby acknowledged that China has for years been developing "intelligence-gathering capabilities in Cuba" and "elsewhere in the hemisphere" to spy on the United States. Kirby's comments come days after he flatly dismissed a Wall Street Journal report that China had struck a deal with Havana to set up an eavesdropping base in Cuba as "not accurate."
Biden administration officials first backtracked over the weekend, admitting that China has been using Cuba as an intelligence-gathering hub since the last administration—but quibbling that the Journal story framed the spy operations as a new development.