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Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon Tracked By Pentagon Over US Skies
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Defense officials said Thursday that the US is tracking what they think is a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon over the continental US. This could make already tense relations between the US and China even worse.
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Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said the balloon was “travelling at an altitude considerably above commercial air traffic and does not provide a military or physical threat to persons on the ground.”
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In a background conversation, a high-ranking US defence official said that top military leaders had told President Joe Biden not to shoot it down because the pieces could hurt people on the ground.
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The top defence official said, "We are sure that this high-altitude surveillance balloon belongs to the People's Republic of China." "This kind of behaviour has been seen before and during this administration, as well as over the past few years."
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Even though the balloon's current flight path takes it over "a number of sensitive sites," the official said it doesn't pose a big risk to intelligence gathering. From the point of view of gathering intelligence, the balloon is thought to have "limited added value," the official said.
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The official said that the US is "taking steps to protect against sensitive information being collected by foreign intelligence." We are also keeping track of what kind of information it could give us, and we are still keeping an eye on the balloon as it flew over the continental United States."
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On Friday, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the balloon accidentally flew into US airspace.
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The civilian airship conducts meteorological research. The airship veered off course due to Westerlies and limited self-steering. "The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace owing to force majeure," the spokeswoman stated.
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According to another defence official, the US believes Chinese spy satellites in low Earth orbit can provide equivalent or better intelligence, restricting Beijing's use of the three-bus-sized high-altitude balloon.
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The senior defence official said, "It doesn't add much to what the PRC is probably already able to collect through things like satellites in low Earth orbit."
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The official said that the US government and the Chinese government have talked through both the Chinese embassy in Washington and the US diplomatic mission in China.
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US national security officials have repeatedly warned about Chinese espionage, and the balloon's presence in the US comes at a sensitive time with Secretary of State Antony Blinken expected to travel to Beijing in the coming days to follow up on President Joe Biden's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last year.
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Josh Lipsky, the senior director of the GeoEconomics Center at the Atlantic Council, said that it is clear that the US wanted China to know that it knew about the balloon before Blinken landed in China.
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Lipsky, referring to the Chinese foreign minister, said, "It sets the stage for a very tense meeting between Blinken and Qin Gang." "It puts Chinese leaders in a bad position before the meetings."
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China is “America's most serious geopolitical challenge,” according to Biden. Recent tensions have arisen over Taiwan, China's human rights record, and its military activity in the South China Sea, among other topics.
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Friday, China's Foreign Ministry said it knew about the reports but warned against"deliberate speculation."We're investigating the matter. “I'd want to stress that before it becomes evident what happened, any willful conjecture or hyping up would not help addressing the matter,” ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a routine news briefing in response to CNN.
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"China is a country with a good reputation. We follow the rules of international law. We have no plans to fly in the airspace of other countries. We hope that everyone involved will keep a level head about it."