Rapid developments in US-China relations

Politico reported on June 9, citing sources familiar with the matter, that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Beijing next week. The US State Department is still finalizing the details of the visit.

This is expected to be the highest-level visit by a US official to China since former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit in 2018. Sources also indicate that Secretary Blinken will travel to Beijing after his current trip to the Middle East. The US State Department has not confirmed Blinken's upcoming visit, while a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the US, Liu Bangyu, said that "China is open to dialogue with the US."

Politico predicts that Secretary of State Blinken will face criticism from Republican lawmakers for traveling to China amid reports that the country is in talks with Cuba to gain a foothold there to spy on the U.S.

Secretary of State Blinken may visit China after his trip to the Middle East.

On the same day, June 8th, The Wall Street Journal quoted several US officials as saying that China had reached a secret agreement with Cuba to establish an electronic eavesdropping facility on an island about 160 km from Florida. According to the report, establishing such a surveillance base would allow Beijing to collect electronic communications from the southeastern United States, an area with many US military bases, as well as monitor the movement of ships. The officials also stated that the two sides had reached an agreement in principle, with China paying Cuba "several billion dollars" to allow the establishment of the eavesdropping station.

US and Cuba speak out after news that China has reached an agreement to build a spy base.

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Department spokesman Patrick Ryder said, "We are unaware of any development of a new type of surveillance station between China and Cuba," and dismissed the report as inaccurate. In Havana, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio also rejected the information, saying it was "completely a lie and baseless" used by the U.S. to justify its decades-long economic embargo against Cuba. He further emphasized that Cuba rejects any foreign military presence in the region. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., said, "We are unaware of the matter and cannot comment at this time."

* On June 9th, AFP reported that the US and UK had just announced an agreement called the Atlantic Declaration, as leaders of the two countries focused on their "special relationship" to counter Russia, China, and economic instability.

During talks at the White House on June 8 (local time), US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reached an agreement to strengthen bilateral relations in the fields of defense and renewable energy, in order to counter competition from other countries. President Biden also agreed to propose that Parliament consider the UK as a domestic source of defense procurement, accelerating the development of next-generation weapons such as hypersonic missiles.

Russian and Chinese air forces conduct joint patrols; South Korea and Japan deploy fighter jets in response.

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