The White House on Monday denied Beijing’s accusations that the United States had sent balloons to China to conduct surveillance, as tensions over espionage rose between the two superpowers.
“Any claim that the US government is operating surveillance balloons over the PRC is false,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said on Twitter, adding that the People’s Republic of China “has a high-profile surveillance balloon program for intelligence collection.”
China accused the US of sending balloons into its airspace
China accused the United States on Monday of flying balloons over its territory, contradicting Washington’s claim that Beijing has been operating a fleet of surveillance planes around the world.
The downing of an alleged Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina earlier this month prompted a bipartisan congressional resolution condemning Beijing, while other unidentified object sightings in North America in recent times have fueled anxiety and speculation about their origins.
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Only the first object has been officially linked to China, with Beijing insisting it is a missing civilian vessel.
On Monday, China sought to turn the tables on Washington, accusing it of sending more than 10 balloons into its airspace from January 2022.
“It is also not uncommon for the United States to enter other countries’ airspace illegally,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a briefing.
“Since last year, US balloons have flown illegally over China more than 10 times without approval from Chinese authorities.”
Asked how China responded to the attack, Wang said Beijing’s “handling (of the incident) was responsible and professional”.
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“If you want to know more about US high-altitude balloons illegally entering China’s airspace, I suggest you look at the US side,” he added.
AFP has contacted the US State Department and the Pentagon for comment on Beijing’s allegations, but has yet to receive a response.
Over the weekend, Chinese state-affiliated media reported that an unidentified flying object had been spotted off the country’s east coast – and that the military was preparing to shoot it down.
Beijing on Monday declined to comment on the report, referring reporters to the defense ministry, which did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
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Americans have been watching the skies as more airstrikes have been reported – all of which Beijing was unaware of on Monday.
On Sunday, the Pentagon said it had not determined the nature of the other three objects – one shot down over Alaska, one in Canada’s Yukon region, and the latest in Lake Huron.
But it said the object brought down on Sunday had been tracked for almost a day and was unlike the Chinese surveillance balloon that was destroyed off the Atlantic coast on February 4 after passing over the country.
The first balloon prompted Washington to cancel a rare trip to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Also read: US shoots down Chinese ‘spy balloons’, angering Beijing
President Joe Biden ordered F-16 fighters to shoot down the latest object on Sunday “out of an abundance of caution”, a senior administration official said.
The object was described by officials as an octagonal structure with strings hanging from it.
Flying at about 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) over Michigan, it could be dangerous for civil aviation, officials said.
General of the US Northern Command Glen VanHerck told reporters that after the plane was sent to inspect the latest object, he concluded that there was no indication of a threat, similar to the previous object.
“What we’re looking at is a very small object that produces a very low radar cross section,” he said.
He refused to describe the shape or size of the objects, but said they were traveling very slowly, around the speed of the wind.
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Speculation about what the object is has been rife for some time.
“I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community find out,” VanHerck told reporters when asked if the object was alien or extraterrestrial.
“I haven’t ruled anything out at this point.”