The United States said on Wednesday it was “in talks with (its) allies and partners” about the “fleet” of spy balloons China has deployed around the world in recent years.
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“Chinese balloons have been observed over countries on five continents” whose sovereignty they have “violated,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told the press from the plane carrying President Joe Biden to a trip to Wisconsin (north). brought.
On Saturday, the United States shot down a Chinese plane at sea that had overflown its territory.
American officials asserted that the decision to wait to launch “provided a tremendous opportunity to better understand and study the ship,” whose crossing of American territory captivated the country for several days.
Washington has since asserted that China wasn’t on the first try and that Beijing had sent three planes into American skies for brief incursions during Donald Trump’s presidency, and already one early in Joe Biden’s tenure.
For its part, China strongly condemned the destruction of the balloon, which it said was a “civilian aircraft for research purposes, mainly meteorological purposes” that “involuntarily” entered American airspace.
“It was an irresponsible act and in response we acted responsibly and prudently to protect our interests,” US diplomat chief Antony Blinken said during a news conference alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday.
He recalled that the US military continued its work collecting balloon debris off the coast of South Carolina.
Government officials are reporting the information gathered to Congress, as well as dozens of countries around the world from Washington or through embassies, Blinken said.
“We’re doing it,” he said, “because the United States was not the only target of this vast program that violated the sovereignty of countries on five continents.”
For his part, Jens Stoltenberg expressed the concern of the NATO countries about these espionage activities by China and stressed that Beijing had invested heavily in acquiring new military capabilities in recent years.
“We are also seeing 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 Washington Post newspaper, citing unidentified American officials, this Chinese espionage program is being run in part from Hainan Island (south).
Spy balloons have been used to monitor military sites in Japan, India and Taiwan, the newspaper added.
In his State of the Union speech on Tuesday evening, the US President said the United States would not be intimidated by China and would not seek conflict with Beijing.