According to sources, a US official who spoke on Saturday claims that China has been running an intelligence unit in Cuba for years and upgraded it in 2019 to increase its presence on the Caribbean island.

The official said this was well-documented in the intelligence record and confirmed China’s espionage activities.

US media had reported earlier that China was planning to establish a spy base on Cuba, which is close to the US shores. The official said that when President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he was briefed on several sensitive PRC efforts around the world to expand its overseas logistics, basing, and collection infrastructure globally, which included the PRC intelligence collection facilities in Cuba.

The official said that the PRC had upgraded its intelligence collection facilities in Cuba in 2019. The Cuban government, which had already denied the existence of a Chinese spy base on its territory, criticized the latest development.

Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said on Twitter that some media outlets were spreading slanderous speculation to cause damage and alarm, without following minimal communication patterns or providing data or evidence to support what they spread.

The developments came as Chinese leader Xi Jinping had pushed for a rapid expansion of the country’s security presence around the world.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to travel to China next weekend, rescheduling a visit that was cancelled in February after a tense incident involving a suspected surveillance balloon passing over the US.

A base in Cuba, which is 90 miles off Florida’s southern tip, would be seen in Washington as a direct challenge to the continental US.

China warned the US on Friday against interfering in Cuba’s internal affairs, in response to the media reports on a planned base. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said he was unaware of the situation and accused the US of spreading rumors and slander and wantonly interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.

The US official said that the administration believed that diplomatic efforts had slowed down the PRC in developing its activities in Cuba and that the PRC was not quite where they had hoped to be.

Earlier this year, China sent what the US called a high-altitude surveillance balloon across the US.