Balloons and allegations of spying are flying between the United States and China, fueling already high tensions between the two superpowers. And while in the land of the X-Files and ET the “unidentified flying objects” mystery has begun to fuel all manner of speculation – so much so that the White House has had to reassure that alien landings on Earth are not imminent – The Republicans attack Joe Biden.
A week after the Chinese balloon was shot down off South Carolina, Beijing is hitting back by accusing Washington of sending the same type of spy device into the sky more than 10 times since January 2022. “In the last year alone, US balloons have flown illegally over China more than 10 times without the approval of Chinese authorities,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin thundered, warning the United States to “change course and examine itself instead.” to slander China”. An accusation that Beijing in Washington firmly rejects from the White House. “There is none of our surveillance activities in the Chinese sky,” said US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, and dismissed the allegations made to the sender. “We found that Beijing has a program of high-flying balloons to gather intelligence information related to the Chinese army,” he said, assuring that the Biden administration is “carefully studying the program.”
In addition, according to Washington, “Chinese spy balloons have flown through dozens of countries on multiple continents around the world, including some of our closest allies.” Meanwhile, in the past few days, the Pentagon has identified and destroyed three other “flying objects” — over Alaska, Canada, and Lake Huron, Michigan — about which very little is known. “They were flying at a lower altitude and posed a threat to commercial air traffic, which is why they were shot down,” Kirby explained, adding, “While there is no evidence that the planes were spying, we cannot rule it out.”
Regarding the recovery of the debris, the White House official explained that the operations are being hampered “by the weather conditions and the frozen water” into which they fell. While awaiting more information on the latest downed plane, North American Aerospace Defense Command chief Gen. Glen VanHerck sent social media into a tailspin with an explanation of the plane’s possible extraterrestrial origin. “There’s nothing to be ruled out at the moment, so we’re calling them objects and not balloons,” the commander explained, igniting the imagination of UFO enthusiasts so much that the White House had to half-jokingly reassure Americans that “there was no sign of extraterrestrial.” or extraterrestrial activity related to the unidentified objects” shot down by the Pentagon in the last few days, spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre assured, joking about being an ET enthusiast
From the few leaked messages so far, the latest three objects shot down are the size of cars, while the Chinese spy balloon is the equivalent of three buses. In terms of shape, the plane shot down over Michigan would have an octagonal structure, while that destroyed over the skies of Canada would be cylindrical. As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken explores the possibility of bilateral talks with CPC diplomacy chief Wang Yi to defuse tensions on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on February 17-19, pressure from Republicans becomes “balloon gate”. increasingly at the Biden administration, which accuses the president of not destroying the Chinese spy balloon sooner, and lament a lack of transparency over recent events.
Read the full article on ANSA.it