One could believe in the scenario of a spy movie. The Pentagon indicated, Thursday, February 2, that it has been monitoring the movements of a mysterious Chinese spy balloon, which would fly over the territory of the United States at high altitude, for a few days.
US intelligence has released relatively little information about him, except that he is “quite large” in circumference. In any case, too much to be shot down because the debris would cause “damage” in an inhabited area, a senior American official told AFP, on condition of anonymity. “We have no doubt that the ball is from China,” he said.
A balloon stealing information, but not dangerous
“Clearly, this balloon is intended for surveillance and its current trajectory takes it over sensitive sites” including nuclear silos, explained the same source. The latter would have flown over the state of Montana, in the western United States. “We take measures to protect ourselves against the collection of sensitive information”, he added while insisting on “the limited added value in terms of collection of information” of the machine.
The object entered airspace “about two days ago”, but US intelligence had been monitoring it long before. This is, according to the senior official, not the first time that the American army has noticed such an intrusion. The balloon would, however, have remained in United States airspace much longer this time around.
“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,” Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said in a statement. Fighter jets approached the craft over Montana.
A possible second “incident” over Canada
The United States are not the only ones concerned by a “balloon” affair… The Canadian government announced on Friday February 3 that it was investigating another “potential incident” similar to that announced by Washington, without however referring to China. “Canada is taking steps to ensure the security of its airspace, including monitoring for a potential second incident,” the Department of Defense said in a statement.
The officials added that they are working with their US intelligence counterparts to “take all necessary steps to protect Canada’s sensitive information from threats from foreign intelligence services.”
Diplomatic tension before an unprecedented meeting
Washington said it had “communicated the seriousness of the incident” to Chinese leaders. The latter reacted a few hours after the intervention of the Canadian government. “A verification is in progress,” promised the press a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, judging that “to make conjectures and to make matters worse before the facts are even established does not help to appropriate resolution of the case”.
THE GlobalTimes, a newspaper funded by the Chinese Communist Party, mocked the incident. “If balloons from other countries can truly enter the continental United States unhindered, or even enter the skies over certain states, that only proves that the United States air defense system cannot is there only to look pretty and is not trustworthy”, he quips in his pages.
This incredible affair comes a few days before the trip of the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken to China, scheduled for Sunday and Monday. This is the first visit to the country by an American secretary of state since October 2018, when the two superpowers seek to prevent the strong tensions between them from degenerating into open conflict. The subjects of litigation, to which this “incident” is added, are already numerous. Among them, Taiwan, which China claims as an integral part of its territory, and China’s activities in Southeast Asia.