The Chinese balloon shot down last Saturday by Washington over the United States would not be an isolated case. China has deployed “in recent years” a “fleet of balloons intended for spy operations” around the world, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday.
“Chinese balloons have been observed over countries on five continents” whose sovereignty they “violated”, she said during a press briefing, a few days after the United States shot down an aircraft flying over their territory. The United States is “in discussion with (their) allies and partners” about this “fleet” of spy balloons, she added.
Washington made the decision last Saturday to shoot down the Chinese unmanned aircraft that was spotted on Feb. 2 flying over the northern United States. The Pentagon suspects China of collecting images for espionage purposes using these balloons. China had expressed its dissatisfaction after the destruction of its machine intended according to it for research, “mainly meteorological”.
VIDEO. US shot down Chinese ‘spy’ balloon, Beijing ‘reserves the right’ to retaliate
“It was an irresponsible act and in response we acted responsibly and prudently in order to protect our interests”, justified this Wednesday the head of the American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, during a press conference alongside the secretary NATO General Jens Stoltenberg.
He recalled that the US military was continuing its work of collecting debris from the balloon off the coast of South Carolina. Government officials inform Congress of the information collected, as well as dozens of countries around the world from Washington or through embassies, further specified Antony Blinken.
“We do it,” he said, “because the United States was not the only target of this vast program that violated the sovereignty of countries across five continents.”
NATO concerns
Jens Stoltenberg, for his part, expressed the concern of NATO countries over these espionage activities by China, stressing that Beijing had invested massively in recent years to acquire new military capabilities. “We have also seen an increase in espionage activities from China in Europe. They use satellites, the internet and, as seen over the United States, balloons,” he said, calling for “constant vigilance.”
According to the daily Washington Post, citing unidentified American officials, this Chinese spy program is partly directed from the island of Hainan (south). Spy balloons have been used to monitor military sites in Japan, India and Taiwan, the newspaper adds.
Since the incident, China has acknowledged that a second balloon was flying over South America and the Canadian government has also said it is investigating “another potential incident”.
According to Washington, China is not at its first attempt and sent three aircraft for brief incursions into American skies during Donald Trump’s presidency, and already one at the start of Joe Biden’s term.
The destruction of the Chinese balloon by the United States considerably cooled the already strained relations between the two powers. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a long-planned trip to Beijing and China declined to answer a phone call from the Pentagon.
In his “State of the Union” address on Tuesday evening, the US president said the United States would not be intimidated by China, while saying it did not seek conflict with Beijing.