U.S. diplomats in China – dwkcommentaries

State Department Officials Visit Cuba To Discuss Diplomats’ Health Incidents

On July 24 three senior U.S. State Department officials visited Cuba and met with the staff at the U.S. Embassy in Havana. They were the Interim Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Francisco Palmieri; the Assistant Deputy Secretary of Administration, William Todd,; and the Undersecretary of Diplomatic Security, Michael Evanoff.[1]

They also met with the Director General of the United States of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Carlos Fernández de Cossío.

Afterwards, Sr. Cossio said the U.S. is “manipulating this issue politically and irresponsibly. The State Department has behaved with a lack of transparency and cooperation, despite the insistent claims of Cuba to seek a response in a cooperative and comprehensive manner, given the reports that the State Department says it has received from its diplomats, but for which it has not shown the slightest evidence.”

Julia Mason, spokeswoman for the State Department, said, “The trip provided an opportunity for our senior officials to gain a deeper insight into the challenges posed by these attacks and their impact on US operations in the field.”

CBS News reports that a spokesperson for Senator Bob Corker (Rep., TN), the Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has said that the State Department Accountability Review Board has “recently completed” a report on the case, as the committee awaits a briefing on it.

“There should be additional hearings in Congress about this,” says Daniel Runde, senior vice president at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. Worried about future attacks on U.S. diplomats, Rude says, “This needs to stop. This is outrageous. I think it is a significant danger.”

Cuba repeatedly has denied any responsibility and has said the U.S. has manipulated the “alleged health incidents” for political purposes. [2]

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[1] Goméz, Officials of the State Department in Cuba to discuss alleged incidents with the health of their diplomats, Cubadebate (July 24, 2018); Surprise visit of senior US officials to Havana for the ‘health incidents, Diario de Cuba (July 25, 2018); Dorsey, Top State officials visit Cuba, probe new health “attacks,” CBS News (July 24, 2018).

[2] Previous posts about the health incidents of U.S. diplomats in Cuba and more recently in China are listed in the “U.S. Diplomats Medical Problems in Cuba, 2017-18″section of List of Posts to dwkcommentaries–Topical: CUBA.

More U.S. Diplomats with Medical Problems in China

On June 29, the U.S. State Department announced that another six U.S. diplomats or family members had been evacuated from the U.S. Consulate in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, after experiencing “abnormal sounds or sensations, and apparently taken for evaluation to the University of Pennsylvania for medical evaluation. This brings the total of such evacuations to eight. The problems in Guangzhou did not occur at the Consulate, but at an apartment tower in the city where a number of consulate employees live.[1]

In addition, the U. S. disclosed that one employee from the its consulate in Shanghai and two from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing also had been sent to the U.S. for further medical tests., bringing the overall total of such evacuations from China to 11.

These problems in China appear to be similar to the medical problems of at least 26 U.S. diplomats and members of their families in Havana, Cuba.[2]

The website for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing China released a statement that on June 28 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke by phone with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. After sentences about their discussion about their “shared goal of the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” it said they “discussed ongoing cooperation on the recent health related incident in Guangzhou, China.”[3]

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[1] Myers, More Americans Evacuated From Chins Over Mysterious Ailments, N.Y. Times (June 30, 2018). See also previous posts to dwkcommentaries.com: U.S. Establishes Task Force To Coordinate Response to Health Problems of U.S. Diplomats in Cuba and China (June 5, 2018); Comment: More U.S. Diplomats Report Illness in China (June 6, 2018);Comment: China Pledges to Investigate Sonic Attacks on U.S. Diplomats (June 7, 2018); Comment: U.S. Broadens Health Alert to All Americans in China (June 8, 2018).

[2] See posts to dwkcommentaries.com listed in the “U.S. Diplomats Medical Problems in Cuba, 2017-18” section of List of Posts to dwkcommentaries—Topical: CUBA.

[3] U.S. Embassy & Consulates in China, Secretary Pompeo’s Call with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (June 28, 2018).

Cuba Still Baffled by Illness of U.S. Diplomats

On June 10 the Cuba Foreign Ministry stated, “ After more than a year of investigations by specialized agencies and experts from Cuba and the United States, it is confirmed that there is no credible hypothesis or conclusions attached to science that justify the actions taken by the United States government against Cuba in detriment of bilateral relations and with obvious political motivations.”[1]

This statement came after the U.S. on June 8 publicly announced that two more officials of the U.S. Embassy in Havana had reported health symptoms as a result of “undefined sounds” in their residence, but that these two individuals were considered “potentially new cases,” but had not yet been “medically confirmed” before testing at the University of Pennsylvania. [2]

According to the subsequent Cuba statement, it learned of one of the new cases on May 29 and immediately did an “exhaustive and urgent investigation carried out in the vicinity of the residence [and] found no evidence of any sound that could cause damage to health.”

In addition, the Ministry reiterated “that no evidence has been presented of the alleged incidents and maintains its unwavering commitment to cooperate with the authorities of the United States to achieve clarification of this situation and the best medical attention to the persons concerned.“ (Emphasis added.)

Nevertheless, Cuba “publicly and officially reiterated its willingness to cooperate seriously in the joint search for answers, clarification and the solution of the alleged facts.”

All of this happened after the U.S. had disclosed that some diplomatic employees at a U.S. consulate in southern China had reported medical symptoms similar to those that had occurred in Cuba.[3]

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[1] MINREX statement, There is no credible hypothesis about alleged sonic attacks, Cubadebate (June 10, 2018); Reuters, Cuba Says Cause of Illness in U.S. Diplomats Remains Mystery, N.Y. Times (June 10, 2018); Assoc. Press, Cuba Releases Details of Incident Involving US Official, N.Y. Times (June 10, 2018).

[2] Assoc. Press, US Pulls 2 More From Cuba Amid New Potential Health Cases, N.Y. Times (June 8, 2018); Reuters, Two People From U.S. Embassy in Havana Evaluated for Illness–State Department, N.Y. Times (June 8. 2018).

[3] U.S. State Dep’t, Message for U.S. Citizens [in China]: Improvements to Safety and Security Information (June 8, 2018); Perlez & Myers, U.S. Issues Alert to Americans in China in Wake of Sonic Attack Fears, N.Y. Times (June 8, 2018); Perlez & Myers, China Pledges to Investigate Fears of Sonic Attacks on U.S. Diplomats, N.Y. Times (June 7, 2018); Myers & Perlez, A Medical Mystery Grows as U.S. Consulate Workers in China Fall Ill, N.Y. Times (June 6, 2018).