China pledges more intelligence sharing with Cuba, months after US jitters

China’s state security chief, Chen Yixin, has met his Cuban counterpart in Beijing and pledged better intelligence sharing to help the US neighbour maintain social stability, against a backdrop of heightened pressure from the Donald Trump administration.

Chen and Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas, Cuba’s interior minister, opened the meeting by marking 65 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, according to a report posted to social media on Monday by China’s Ministry of State Security.

Cuba was the first country in the western hemisphere to establish diplomatic relations with China, and the two countries had remained good friends, Chen said, while Alvarez praised China’s achievements over the years.

“China has achieved remarkable accomplishments that have attracted worldwide attention and has become a role model for socialist countries,” Alvarez said.

Chen also said that China was ready to work with Cuba on the understandings reached by President Xi Jinping and the Cuban leader Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermúdez at their meeting in May.

“China is ready to work with Cuba to follow on the important mutual understandings reached by [the two leaders], further strengthen cooperation in the field of intelligence and security, safeguard the national security and social stability of the two countries and make new progress in building a China-Cuba community with a shared future,” he said.

Also on Friday, Alvarez met Wang Xiaohong, China’s public security minister, who said China was willing to increase personnel exchanges and build more law enforcement capacity.