Chinese, Cuban and U.S. officials have dismissed reports by The Wall Street Journal alleging an agreement between China and Cuba to build a multibillion-dollar electronic spy installation on the island to intercept communications from the United States. China’s foreign minister denounced the story as slander. In Havana, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, called the report “totally mendacious and unfounded,” while pointing to the U.S. military’s role in the region.

Carlos Fernández de Cossío: “We reject any foreign military presence in Latin America and the Caribbean, including many bases and military forces of the United States, especially the military base that illegally occupies part of the national territory in the Guantánamo province.”