CHINESE BALLOON. US authorities announced Thursday, February 2, the presence of a balloon in the airspace of the country, which they claim to be of Chinese origin and intended for surveillance. On Friday, Canada said it was investigating a “potential second incident” without mentioning Beijing.
The Pentagon announced Thursday, February 2, the presence of a balloon in the airspace of the United States. He entered this space “about two days ago,” a senior US defense official told AFP on condition of anonymity. “We have no doubt that the ball came from China,” he said, adding that Washington had raised the matter with Chinese authorities. “We are taking measures to protect ourselves against the collection of sensitive information”, continued this senior official, specifying nevertheless that the machine had a “limited added value in terms of collection of information”. This white balloon is very large in size, since its diameter corresponds to the length of three buses, according to information from West France. It also has black satellite antennas.
The Chinese government for its part assured that “a verification is in progress” about this information. “Making conjectures and making things upside down even before the facts are established does not help in an appropriate resolution of the file”, nevertheless warned Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in front of the press. “As a responsible country, China has always strictly respected international law and has no intention of violating the territory and airspace of a sovereign state,” she said, calling for “handling this dossier with composure and caution”. Information reported by AFP.
On Friday February 3, the Canadian government announced that it was investigating a “second potential incident”. “Canadians are safe and Canada is taking steps to ensure the security of its airspace, including monitoring for a potential second incident,” the Canadian Department of Defense said in a statement, without giving more details. details and, above all, without referring to Beijing. “Canada’s intelligence agencies are working with their U.S. partners and continue to take all necessary steps to protect Canada’s sensitive information from threats from foreign intelligence services,” the Department of Defense simply said.
“Clearly, this balloon is intended for surveillance and its current trajectory takes it over sensitive sites,” said the senior American Defense official quoted by AFP, adding that on its route were, in particular, airbases and strategic missile silos. He thus evoked the State of Montana, which is located in the northwest of the United States. If the balloon entered American airspace “about two days ago”, the intelligence services in Washington were already monitoring it, according to this senior official. The latter also added that this was not the first time that the American army had noticed such an intrusion. But this time the balloon stayed in the country’s airspace for much longer.
Following a request from US President Joe Biden, the Pentagon considered shooting down the craft. However, due to the accidents that could result from the fallout of the balloon’s debris, it was decided not to shoot it down, according to the senior American official quoted by AFP. Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said the United States and Canadian Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) was monitoring the path of the balloon. “The balloon is currently flying at an altitude well above commercial air traffic. It poses no military or physical threat to those on the ground,” he said in a statement.
The announcement of this discovery by the American authorities, and especially the fact that they accuse China of being behind this spy balloon, comes at a particularly inopportune moment for the diplomacy of the two countries. Indeed, Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, is expected in China on Sunday for a two-day state visit. This is the first visit to the country by a head of American diplomacy since October 2018. The country’s State Department did not wish to say whether the incident called into question this visit.
The subjects of tension between Beijing and Washington are numerous, in particular that of the island of Taiwan, whose independence is rejected by China. The country’s activities in Southeast Asia are also being scrutinized by US authorities. Moreover, the American Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, signed Thursday, during a trip to the Philippines, agreements aimed at strengthening the American military presence against Beijing.
The senior American official quoted by AFP indicated, about the spy balloon, that the American authorities communicated to their Chinese counterparts “the seriousness of the incident”. “We made it clear to them that we will do whatever is necessary to protect our people on our territory,” the source continued. The Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, denounced a “destabilizing action” by a country which “shamelessly despises the sovereignty of the United States”, and called on the American president “not to remain silent”.