The fact that the Americans are also creative when it comes to surveillance has been known to many, at least since the revelations about the NSA. But the United States wants nothing to do with spy balloons over China – and is outraged that such allegations are coming from there now.
The United States rejects China’s allegations that American high-altitude balloons flew over the People’s Republic without permission. “Any allegation that the US government is allowing surveillance balloons to cross the People’s Republic of China is false,” said US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson. Rather, China is engaged in espionage with high-altitude balloons that have violated the sovereignty of the United States and more than 40 countries on five continents.
“China has repeatedly and falsely claimed that the surveillance balloon it sent over the US was a weather balloon and has not provided credible explanations for its intrusion into our airspace and the airspace of other countries,” the spokeswoman wrote also on Twitter.
Watson was responding to the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s statement that US balloons had flown at high altitude over Chinese territory more than ten times in the past year. When asked how China would react to the flights, the ministry spokesman said only that the People’s Republic’s response to such incidents was responsible and professional. He also referred to wiretapping activities and the large network of US agents.
The dispute over high-altitude balloons has further soured the already tense relations between the two major powers. Earlier this month, the US government announced that a surveillance balloon had been spotted and launched on February 4 off the coast of South Carolina. On Friday, a second object was shot down near Deadhorse, Alaska. A third object was destroyed over Canada’s Yukon on Saturday. On Sunday, a US jet shot down the fourth flying object over the US-Canada border over Lake Huron.
According to Chinese information, the balloon shot down on February 4 is civilian research equipment from China. The People’s Republic accused the United States of overreacting in this case. On the other hand, the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing said that there was no information about the flying objects shot down by the US military. The US accuses China of launching balloons for espionage purposes.
