The Colombian Air Force has released additional information about a second suspected high-altitude Chinese spy balloon hovering over parts of Latin America.
A balloon at 55,000 feet was spotted at about 25 knots in northern Colombia on Feb. 3, a statement said.
Unlike the balloon, which was traveling through the US, Colombian authorities said it was not shot down because it was not considered a “threatening threat to national security.” Instead, they followed him out of national airspace.
The US Department of Defense on Friday confirmed the existence of a second balloon that was reportedly flying eastbound over Costa Rica, Colombia and Venezuela.
“We are seeing reports of a balloon crossing Latin America,” Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said a day after the first vehicle was sighted in the United States. “We now assume that this is another Chinese surveillance balloon.”
The following Saturday, the Department of Defense confirmed that an F-22 Raptor fighter jet downed the US balloon that was hovering over Missouri and Montana.
The Colombian Air Force released additional information about the second suspected high-altitude Chinese spy balloon hovering over parts of Latin America. Its path is shown above in orange and labeled (2).
“On the morning of February 3, 2023, the National Air Defense System detected an object over 55,000 feet entering Colombian airspace in the northern sector of the country,” it said on February 4.
Images on Twitter showed the balloon hovering over both Cartagena in Colombia and later over Maracaibo in Venezuela. In both, the white surveillance balloon appeared as a speck of white drifting slowly through the blue sky.
China insisted the balloon that passed over the US was a misguided civilian airship, used primarily for meteorological research, that had been thrown off course due to winds.
“Influenced by the westerly winds and with limited self-piloting ability, the airship has deviated far from its planned course,” said Mao Ning, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry.
The US flatly refused, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a high-stakes trip to Beijing, telling a senior Chinese diplomat that sending the balloon over the US was “an irresponsible act”.
Colombian officials said in their statement that they will “carry out relevant investigations in coordination with different countries and institutions to determine the provenance of the object.”
Colombia’s political and security ties with the People’s Republic of China have deteriorated in recent years, according to a report last year by the Center for Strategic International Studies.
Its relationship with the PRC is one of the oldest in the region. In 1980, Colombia shifted its diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to the PRC, but in recent years it seems to have begun to view China as a threat rather than an opportunity.
According to Colombian officials, the second balloon was spotted at an altitude of 55,000 feet and was flying at about 25 knots. It is pictured here over Maracaibo in Venezuela
The second Chinese spy balloon was reported to have flown over Latin America, with many snapping photos of a balloon hovering over Venezuela (left). The sighting came after a surveillance balloon was sighted in Montana (right).
Chinese officials said the balloon was a civilian vehicle used for meteorological purposes and got lost. The US rejected this idea
President Biden was initially keen on bringing down the balloon, but defense officials warned him not to do so because of its size and the potential for harm to Americans on the ground. Eventually it was shot down after crossing South Carolina and the Atlantic
China threatens to respond with “decisive action” after the US finally shot down its spy balloon after it finally flew across the Atlantic.
Beijing’s foreign ministry last night criticized the move as “a clear overreaction and a serious violation of international practice.”
An F-22 Raptor fighter jet downed the balloon at 2:38 p.m. Saturday off the coast of South Carolina using a single AIM-9X Sidewinder missile.
FULL STATEMENT BY PENTAGON:
This afternoon, at the direction of President Biden, US warplanes assigned to the US Northern Command successfully brought down the high-altitude-launched People’s Republic of China (PRC) surveillance balloon over the water off the coast of South Carolina in the US airspace.
The balloon, used by the PRC in an attempt to patrol strategic locations in the continental United States, was brought down over US territorial waters.
On Wednesday, President Biden gave his approval to dismantle the surveillance balloon once the mission can be conducted without undue risk to the lives of Americans under the balloon’s path.
After careful analysis, US military commanders had determined that launching the balloon over land posed an unreasonable risk to people in a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload.
In accordance with the President’s instructions, the Department of Defense was developing options to safely bring the balloon down over our territorial waters while closely monitoring its path and intelligence-gathering activities.
This action was taken in coordination with and with the full support of the Government of Canada. And we thank Canada for its contribution to NORAD’s tracking and analysis of the balloon as it traversed North America.
Today’s deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President Biden and his national security team will always put the safety and security of the American people first while responding effectively to the PRC’s unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.
Beijing issued a threatening statement saying it “reserves the right to provide further answers if necessary”.
“The Chinese side, after verification, has repeatedly informed the US side about the civilian nature of the airship and that its entry into the United States was totally unexpected due to force majeure,” the ministry said.
The US has been tracking the first balloon since at least Jan. 31, when President Biden was first briefed, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
After passing the sensitive military sites in Montana, the balloon moved southeast over the heartland of the central United States during the day and was expected to remain in US airspace for several days, officials said.
According to three US officials, Biden initially tried to order the surveillance balloon down from the sky, and a senior defense official said the US had prepared fighter jets, including F-22s, to shoot it down on orders.
But officials said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, had advised him against launching the balloon, warning that its size — as big as three buses — and considerable weight could harm Americans on the ground .
The Pentagon also indicated that the balloon was not very likely to collect important information.
It wasn’t the first time Chinese surveillance balloons have been tracked over US territory, including at least once during former President Trump’s administration, officials said.
This latest discovery of the balloons has dealt a fresh blow to already strained US-China relations, which have been on a downward spiral for years.
Nonetheless, US officials claimed that diplomatic channels remain open and that Blinken said he remains willing to travel to China “if conditions permit.”
“We continue to believe that it is important to have open lines of communication,” he said.
A US State Department official said Blinken and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman protested to the top official at the Chinese embassy on Wednesday, a day before the Pentagon announced the balloon’s discovery.