BEIJING, 3 Feb: The U.S. was tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon spotted over American airspace, and China said Friday that it would look into those reports, as the discovery further strained already tense relations between Beijing and Washington.
\nThe Pentagon decided not to shoot down the balloon, which was potentially flying over sensitive sites, because of concerns of hurting people on the ground.
\nThe news came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was expected to make his first trip to Beijing this weekend. The visit has not been formally announced, and it was not immediately clear if the balloon\u2019s discovery would affect his travel plans.
\nChinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said she had no information on the trip. But she said China has \u201cno intention of violating the territory and airspace of any sovereign country\u201d and urged calm while the facts are established.
\nBlinken would be the highest-ranking member of President Joe Biden\u2019s administration to visit China, on a mission to mitigate a sharp downturn in relations between the countries amid trade disputes and concerns about Beijing\u2019s increasingly aggressive stance toward Taiwan and in the South China Sea.
\nA senior American defense official told Pentagon reporters Thursday that the U.S. has \u201cvery high confidence\u201d that the object spotted over U.S. airspace in recent days was a Chinese high-altitude balloon and that it was flying over sensitive sites to collect information. One of the places the balloon was spotted was Montana, which is home to one of the nation\u2019s three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
\nThe defense official said the U.S. has assessed that the balloon has \u201climited\u201d value in terms of providing intelligence that couldn\u2019t be obtained by other technologies, such as spy satellites.
\nIt was not clear what will happen with the balloon if it isn\u2019t brought down.
\nMao said China was working to understand the situation in the hopes \u201cthat both sides can handle this together calmly and carefully.\u201d
\n\u201cChina is a responsible country and has always strictly abided by international laws, and China has no intention of violating the territory and airspace of any sovereign country,\u201d she said.
\nA day earlier, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said similar balloon activity has been seen in the past several years and the government has taken steps to ensure no sensitive information was stolen.
\nHe said the balloon was traveling well above the height commercial aircraft fly at and didn\u2019t present a threat to people on the ground.
\nBiden was briefed and asked the military to present options, according to a senior administration official, who was also not authorized to publicly discuss sensitive information. The senior defense official said the U.S. prepared fighter jets, including F-22s, to shoot down the balloon if ordered.
\nDefense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, advised against taking \u201ckinetic action\u201d because of risks to the safety of people on the ground. Biden accepted that recommendation.
\nEven though the balloon was over a sparsely populated area of Montana, its size would create a debris field large enough that it could have put people at risk.
\nThe defense official would not specify the size of the balloon but said commercial pilots could spot it from their cockpits.
\nThe surveillance balloon was first reported by NBC News.
\nA photograph of a large white balloon lingering over the area was captured by The Billings Gazette. The balloon could be seen drifting in and out of clouds and had what appeared to be a solar array hanging from the bottom, said Gazette photographer Larry Mayer.
\nThe balloon\u2019s appearance adds to national security concerns among American lawmakers over China\u2019s influence in the U.S., ranging from the prevalence of the hugely popular smartphone app TikTok to purchases of American farmland.
\n\u201cChina\u2019s brazen disregard for U.S. sovereignty is a destabilizing action that must be addressed,\u201d Republican Party House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted.
\nTensions with China are particularly high on numerous issues, ranging from Taiwan and the South China Sea to human rights in China\u2019s western Xinjiang region and the clampdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong. Not least on that list of irritants are China\u2019s tacit support for Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, its refusal to rein in North Korea\u2019s expanding ballistic missile program and ongoing disputes over trade and technology.
\nOn Tuesday, Taiwan scrambled fighter jets, put its navy on alert and activated missile systems in response to nearby operations by 34 Chinese military aircraft and nine warships that are part Beijing\u2019s strategy to unsettle and intimidate the self-governing island democracy.
\nTwenty of those aircraft crossed the central line in the Taiwan Strait that has long been an unofficial buffer zone between the two sides, which separated during a civil war in 1949. AP<\/p>\n
Beijing has also increased preparations for a potential blockade or military action against Taiwan, which has stirred increasing concern among military leaders, diplomats and elected officials in the U.S., Taiwan\u2019s key ally. AP<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING, 3 Feb: The U.S. was tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon spotted over American airspace, and China said Friday that it would look into those reports, as the discovery further strained already tense relations between Beijing and Washington. The Pentagon decided not to shoot down the balloon, which was potentially flying over sensitive sites, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-210156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}