Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/BEIJING: Beijing confirmed on Monday that the balloon spotted while flying over Latin America is Chinese, as the United States (US) worked to recover what it claimed to be an unmanned spy aircraft it shot down at the weekend.
China expressed fury at the US decision to shoot down the balloon device that it insists was the unmanned weather surveillance aircraft that had veered off course the previous week.
The balloon sparked outrage in the US, which accused Beijing of an “unacceptable violation” of its territorial sovereignty and prompted Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, to call off the planned trip to Beijing.
Chain acknowledged on Monday the latest balloon, spotted by the United States and Colombian official flying over Latin America’s airspace at the weekend, was also the Chinese.
Its foreign ministry said that the device was “a civilian nature and used the flight tests.”
Spokesperson Mao Ning said that “Affected by the weather forces in addition to the maneuverability being limited, the airship deviated from its expected course and accidentally entered Caribbean airspace and Latin American.”
That statement came 3 days after what the Pentagon characterized as another Chinese balloon had been seen across Latin America.
Colombia’s air force reported at the weekend that an object with “characteristics similar to a spy balloon” was spoted and monitored until it left Colombian airspace.
It said that investigations were being conducted in coordination with other nations and institutions to establish the object’s origins.
Surveillance balloon
The other spy balloon had spent several days flying over North America before Washington said an F-22 fighter jet had shot it off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday.
Pentagon had described it as a “high-altitude surveillance spy balloon” and said also Washington had taken steps to block it from collecting sensitive data.
Commander of US forces in North America, General Glen VanHerck said that on Sunday navy personnel were “currently conducting recovery operations, with the United States Coast Guard assisting in securing the area and maintaining public safety”.
Beijing has said the balloon shot down was primarily gathering weather information and that it had been blown off course.
In return, it has said that the United States (US) “impacted and damaged” ties between the two nations by shooting it down and lodged a formal complaint with the United States embassy in Beijing.
Xie Feng, China’s vice foreign minister warned that Beijing “reserves the right to make further important reactions”.
A clear message
the US Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer said that the downing of the spy balloon “was not safest option, but it was the one maximized our intel gain”.
That was because any instrumentation on the airspace was more likely to survive water landing than if the balloon had been shot down earlier over land.
He said that “we sent a clear message to China that this is unacceptable,”
Schumer said that the full Senate should receive a classified briefing on February 15.
Former United States Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Mike Mullen was questioned on ABC News if he thought element in the Chinese army might have launched the spy balloon to disrupt the Blinken visit.
He said, “clearly, I think that’s the case,”.
Mullen said that the craft was maneuverable and refused China’s suggestion it might have been blown off course.
He said that “It has propellers on it,”.
“This was not the accident. This is deliberate. It’s intelligence.”
Blinken’s visit should have been the first to China by a United States secretary of state since Mike Pompeo’s in 2018.
Plans for the trip were announced after President of the US, Joe Biden, held a rare summit with Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping in Bali in November.
China issued a rare statement of regret for the initial incident moments before the announcement that Blinken’s trip to China had been cancelled.
The tone of China’s statements flipped from conciliatory to angry after the cancellation and shooting down of the craft.
