{"id":29451,"date":"2023-02-03T11:36:20","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T11:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=29451"},"modified":"2023-02-03T11:36:22","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T11:36:22","slug":"pentagon-claims-to-be-keeping-an-eye-on-a-chinese-spy-balloon-seen-flying-above-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/02\/03\/pentagon-claims-to-be-keeping-an-eye-on-a-chinese-spy-balloon-seen-flying-above-the-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon claims to be keeping an eye on a Chinese spy balloon seen flying above the US"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Pentagon has said it is tracking a Chinese spy balloon flying over the US but decided against shooting it down for safety reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defence officials said the balloon has been watched since it entered US airspace at high altitude a couple of days ago. It has been monitored by several methods including crewed aircraft, and has most recently been tracked crossing Montana, where the US has silo-based nuclear missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a precaution, flights out of Billings Logan airport were suspended on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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The Chinese government has not confirmed if it owns the balloon, and state-backed media has used the incident to taunt the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe balloon itself is a big target,\u201d the state-backed nationalistic tabloid the Global Times wrote in English on Twitter, which is banned in China. \u201cIf balloons from other countries could really enter continental US smoothly, or even enter the sky over certain states, it only proves that the US\u2019s air defense system is completely a decoration and cannot be trusted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday afternoon, China Daily said the spy balloon claims were a lie. \u201cTo spy on the US with a balloon, one must both fall far behind to use a 1940s technology and be advanced enough to control its flight across the ocean. Those fabricating the lie are only exposing their ignorance,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Pentagon\u2019s announcement, Canada\u2019s national defence department said it too had detected a high-altitude surveillance balloon and was \u201cmonitoring a potential second incident\u201d. US officials said earlier that the balloon had travelled over part of Canada on its way to Montana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada\u2019s defence authorities made clear there was no public danger, adding: \u201cCanada\u2019s intelligence agencies are working with American partners and continue to take all necessary measures to safeguard Canada\u2019s sensitive information from foreign intelligence threats.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon said in a statement: \u201cThe balloon is currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years. Once the balloon was detected, the US government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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The incident comes just before the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was expected to visit China this weekend to meet the president, Xi Jinping. The trip has not been formally announced, but both Beijing and Washington have been talking about his imminent arrival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A senior US defence official said the US had \u201cengaged\u201d with Chinese officials through multiple channels about the seriousness of the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, a spokesperson for China\u2019s ministry of foreign affairs said Beijing was \u201cverifying\u201d the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would like to emphasise that until the facts are clarified, speculation and hype will not be helpful to the proper resolution of the issue,\u201d Mao Ning told the regular daily press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mao said China had no intention of violating the territory and airspace of any country, and that the government hoped to handle the matter with the US \u201ccalmly\u201d, according to state media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pentagon officials said there was \u201chigh confidence\u201d that the balloon was Chinese, and that Joe Biden had been briefed on the situation. The president asked for military options, but it was decided there was too great a danger of debris harming people on the ground were it to be shot down.https:\/\/interactive.guim.co.uk\/embed\/aus\/2023\/01\/spy-balloon\/index.html<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also judged that, although it was flying over sensitive nuclear sites in Montana, it did not appear to be gathering any intelligence that could not be collected from satellites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montana is home to one of the nation\u2019s three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom air force base. All air traffic was halted at Montana\u2019s Billings Logan international airport from 1.30pm to 3.30pm on Wednesday, as the military readied fighter jets and provided options to the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congressional leaders were briefed on Thursday afternoon. The House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, later tweeted: \u201cChina\u2019s brazen disregard for US sovereignty is a destabilising action that must be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Montana governor, Greg Gianforte, said he was briefed on Wednesday about the situation after the state\u2019s national guard was notified of an ongoing military operation taking place in its airspace, according to a statement from the governor and the spokesperson Brooke Stroyke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The object first flew over Alaska\u2019s Aleutian Islands and Canada before appearing over Billings on Wednesday, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aerial<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon says the suspected Chinese spy balloon \u2018does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground\u2019. Photograph: Eva Hambach\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Military experts say the use of high-altitude balloons is likely to increase. They are cheaper than spy satellites, are hard to spot by radar and difficult to shoot down, sometimes lingering for days after they have been punctured. They can \u201csteer\u201d by changing altitudes, using computers to calculate how to use winds going in different directions at different layers of the atmosphere. As well as surveillance, they could also carry bombs in times of conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, the US military used up to 25 experimental solar-powered high-altitude balloons to conduct wide-area surveillance tests across six mid-western states. The balloons were equipped with hi-tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather, and were intended to be used to monitor drug trafficking and potential homeland security threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tensions with China are high on issues ranging from Taiwan and the South China Sea to human rights in China\u2019s western Xinjiang region and the clampdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong. Other irritants are China\u2019s tacit support for Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, its refusal to rein in North Korea\u2019s expanding ballistic missile programme and ongoing disputes over trade and technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Montana residents reported seeing an unusual object in the sky during the airport shutdown, but it is not clear if what they were seeing was the balloon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From an office window in Billings, Chase Doak said he saw a \u201cbig white circle in the sky\u201d that he said was too small to be the moon. He took some photos, then ran home to get a camera with a stronger lens and took more photos and video. He could see it for about 45 minutes and it appeared stationary, but Doak said the video suggested it was moving slowly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought maybe it was a legitimate UFO,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I wanted to make sure I documented it and took as many photos as I could.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon has said it is tracking a Chinese spy balloon flying over the US but decided against shooting it down for safety reasons. Defence officials said the balloon has been watched since it entered US airspace at high altitude a couple of days ago. It has been monitored by several methods including crewed aircraft, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":29452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[8775,8843,11363,5754,9517,8311,5777,6263,5178,6044,11250,8659,1953,2152,7421,1279,10767,5183,11606,11273,6778,7712,8123,11355,2264,10453,6929,3883,10769,10840,12773,10954,5252,9463,2471,9267,1821,6690,4053,5572,5254,12985,10477,7964,5253,6666,11973,6719,3805,3457,5655,9761,11259,12477,9271,5795,9277,7422,9483,3306,10841,2711,10236,6675,10329,5594,9313,5350,12605,5180,6348,9516,1151,8033,2354,9085,12790,6571,2982,3954,7898,8327],"class_list":["post-29451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-air-defense","tag-air-force","tag-aircraft","tag-airport","tag-alaska","tag-antony-blinken","tag-banned","tag-beijing","tag-biden","tag-blinken","tag-bombs","tag-camera","tag-canada","tag-chase","tag-chinese","tag-circle","tag-conflict","tag-debris","tag-democracy","tag-drug","tag-engaged","tag-english","tag-eye","tag-flight","tag-government","tag-guard","tag-high-altitude","tag-hong-kong","tag-house-speaker","tag-human-rights","tag-increase","tag-international","tag-invasion","tag-jets","tag-joe-biden","tag-kevin-mccarthy","tag-kong","tag-korea","tag-mccarthy","tag-military","tag-missile","tag-missiles","tag-moon","tag-north","tag-north-korea","tag-nuclear","tag-one","tag-pentagon","tag-president","tag-russia","tag-security","tag-shoot","tag-shot","tag-shutdown","tag-sky","tag-solar","tag-speaker","tag-spy","tag-spy-ballon","tag-steer","tag-surveillance","tag-taiwan","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-trade","tag-traffic","tag-trafficking","tag-twitter","tag-uk","tag-ukraine","tag-us","tag-us-military","tag-us-secretary-of-state","tag-video","tag-washington","tag-weather","tag-weekend","tag-white","tag-white-house","tag-will","tag-xi","tag-xi-jinping"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}