A Chinese spy balloon has been spotted over the United States
The US is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been sighted over US airspace for a few days, but the Pentagon has decided not to shoot it down due to the risk of harm to people on the ground, officials said Thursday. The discovery of the balloon puts additional strain on US-China relations at a time of heightened tensions.
A senior defense official told Pentagon reporters that the US was “very confident” it was a Chinese high-altitude balloon and had flown over sensitive locations to gather intelligence. One of the places the balloon was sighted was in Montana, where Malmstrom Air Force Base is one of the country’s three nuclear missile silo fields. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
Brig. Pentagon press secretary General Patrick Ryder made a brief statement on the matter, saying the government is continuing to track the balloon. He said it is “currently operating at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and poses no military or physical threat to people on the ground.”
He said similar balloon activity had been observed in recent years. He added that the US has taken steps to ensure it is not collecting sensitive information.
The defense official said the US had “engaged” Chinese officials through multiple channels, communicating the seriousness of the matter.
The incident came as Foreign Minister Antony Blinken was due to make his first trip to Beijing, expected this weekend, to try to find common ground. Although the trip has not been officially announced, both Beijing and Washington have spoken about his upcoming arrival.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the balloon’s discovery would affect Blinken’s travel plans.
The senior defense official said the US had fighter jets, including F-22s, ready to shoot down the balloon if ordered to do so by the White House. The Pentagon eventually advised against it, noting that even if the balloon were over a sparsely populated area of Montana, its size would create a debris field large enough to put people in danger.
It wasn’t clear what the military was doing to stop it from gathering sensitive information, or what would happen to the balloon if it wasn’t shot down.
The defense official said the spy balloon attempted to fly over Montana’s missile fields, but the US has determined the balloon has “limited” value in terms of providing China intelligence it isn’t already gathering by other means could, for example by spy satellites.
The official declined to specify the balloon’s size but said it was large enough for commercial pilots to see despite its great height. All air travel was suspended from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at Billings Logan International Airport in Montana as the military provided options to the White House. A photo of a large white balloon lingering over the area was captured by the Billings Gazette, but the Pentagon would not confirm if that was the surveillance balloon.
The defense official said what concerned them about that launch was the altitude at which the balloon flew and the time it lingered over one location, without giving details.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said he was briefed on the situation Wednesday after the Montana National Guard was notified of an ongoing military operation in Montana airspace, according to a statement by Republican Gov. Spokesperson Brooke Stroyke.
“From the spy balloon to the Chinese Communist Party spying on Americans via TikTok to CCP-affiliated companies buying American farmland, I am deeply troubled by the constant stream of alarming developments for our national security,” Gianforte said in a statement .
Tensions with China are particularly high on a range of issues, from Taiwan and the South China Sea to human rights in China’s western Xinjiang region to the crackdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong. Last but not least on that list of irritations are China’s tacit support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its refusal to rein in North Korea’s expanding ballistic missile program, and ongoing disputes over trade and technology.
On Tuesday, Taiwan relocated warplanes, put its navy on alert and activated missile systems in response to nearby operations by 34 Chinese military planes and nine warships, part of Beijing’s strategy to unsettle and intimidate the island’s self-governing democracy.
Twenty of those planes crossed the central line in the Taiwan Strait, which had long been an unofficial buffer zone between the two sides that split during a civil war in 1949.
Beijing has also ramped up preparations for a possible blockade or military action against Taiwan, raising concerns among military leaders, diplomats and elected officials in the US, Taiwan’s key ally.
The surveillance balloon was first reported by NBC News.
Some Montana residents reported seeing an unusual object in the sky during Wednesday’s airport closure, but it’s not clear what they saw was the balloon.
From an office window in Billings, Chase Doak said he saw a “large white circle in the sky” that he thought was too small to be the moon.
He took a few photos, then ran home to get a camera with a more powerful lens and took more photos and videos. He could see it for about 45 minutes and it appeared to be stationary, but Doak said the video suggested it was slowly moving.
“I thought maybe it was a legitimate UFO,” he said. “So I wanted to make sure I documented it and took as many photos as possible.”
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