On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a diplomatic visit to Beijing after the discovery of a Chinese weather balloon drifting over the US this week. However, a senior US Department of Defense official stated that the balloon was clearly intended for surveillance, while the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied the claim and referred to it as an off-course weather balloon.
Following this, on Saturday, President Joe Biden said that he ordered U.S. officials to shoot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this week and that national security leaders decided the best time for the operation was when the it got over water.
“They successfully took it down and I want to complement our aviators who did it,” Biden said after getting off Air Force One en route to Camp David.
Fighter jets shot down the giant white balloon off the Carolina coast after it traversed sensitive military sites across North America and became the latest flashpoint in tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that Biden approved the shootdown on Wednesday, saying it should be done “as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path.”
Due to the size and altitude of the spy balloon, estimated to be the size of three school buses and flying at 60,000 feet, Austin stated that the military determined that taking it down over land would be a threat to people on the ground. The balloon was spotted Saturday morning over the Carolinas and prompted the FAA to temporarily close the airspace over the Carolina coastline, including Charleston, Myrtle Beach, and Wilmington airports, and reroute air traffic. An operation was underway in the Atlantic Ocean to recover the balloon debris. Air Force fighter aircraft were deployed to bring down the balloon, and President Biden reassured the public that “we’re going to take care of it.”
The FAA, Coast Guard, and military worked together to clear the airspace and water, and the balloon was seen descending into the water following a small explosion. The operation aimed to recover as much debris as possible before it sinks into the ocean, with the Pentagon estimating a substantial debris field. The Coast Guard advised mariners to immediately leave the area because of U.S. military operations “that present a significant hazard.”
Biden had been inclined to down the balloon over land when he was first briefed on it on Tuesday, but Pentagon officials advised against it, warning that the potential risk to people on the ground outweighed the assessment of potential Chinese intelligence gains.
The public disclosure of the balloon this week prompted the cancellation of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing scheduled for Sunday for talks aimed at reducing U.S.-China tensions. The Chinese government on Saturday sought to play down the cancellation.
“In actuality, the U.S. and China have never announced any visit, the U.S. making any such announcement is their own business, and we respect that,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Saturday morning.
China has continued to claim that the balloon was merely a weather research “airship” that had been blown off course. The Pentagon rejected that out of hand — as well as China’s contention that it was not being utilized for surveillance and had only limited navigational ability.
The balloon was spotted over Montana, which is home to one of America’s three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
The Pentagon likewise acknowledged reports of a second balloon flying over Latin America. “We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a question about the second balloon.
Blinken, who had been due to depart Washington for Beijing late Friday, said he had told senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in a phone call that sending the balloon over the U.S. was “an irresponsible act and that (China’s) decision to take this action on the eve of my visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions that we were prepared to have.”
Uncensored reactions on the Chinese network mirrored the official government stance that the U.S. was hyping the situation. Some employed it as a chance to poke fun at U.S. defenses, saying it couldn’t even defend against a balloon, and nationalist influencers leapt to employ the news to mock the U.S.
China has denied any claims of spying and said it is a civilian-utilize balloon intended for meteorology research. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that the balloon’s journey was out of its control and urged the U.S. not to “smear” it based on the balloon.
Spy balloons, while cheap to deploy and capable of continuous monitoring, have fallen out of favor as they attract unwanted attention and have limitations such as weight restrictions and lower sensor capabilities compared to satellites. A RAND Corporation senior technical analyst stated that the advantages of balloons are outweighed by the attention they attract, and the military considered taking action against the balloon, but concluded that the risks were too high.
The balloon was detected above commercial air traffic at 60,000 feet and does not pose a threat, but if shot down, could create a potentially dangerous debris field. The military had considered taking action, but the risks were too high. The Pentagon press secretary noted that instances of balloon activity have been observed in the past.
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Author: Associated Press
