The balloon shot down in American skies on February 4, 2023. RANDALL HILL/REUTERS
In response to the downing of a Chinese balloon over American soil, Beijing accused Washington of sending similar craft into its own skies.
Washington rejected on Monday the accusations of Beijing, which accuses it of having sent balloons over Chinese territory, in full tension between the two countries since the overflight of American soil by a Chinese machine, finally shot down. “Any claim that the US state is using spy balloons over China is false“, assured Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the National Security Council of the White House. “It is China that has a high-altitude spy balloon program to gather intelligence, which it has used to violate the sovereignty of the United States and more than 40 countries on 5 continents.“, she added on Twitter.
Earlier Monday, Beijing claimed that “american balloons“had flown over the territory of China”more than ten times without any authorization“, since last year.
“No credible explanation” from Beijing
A spokesperson for the US State Department also dismissed the allegations, saying that Beijing “tried to limit the damage“. China “repeatedly asserted, and incorrectly, that the spy balloon sent to the United States was a meteorological device» and only provided «no credible explanation for its intrusion into our airspace and those of others“, did he declare.
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The overflight of American territory by a Chinese balloon, considered by Washington to be a device “spyhas cooled relations between the two powers, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken even postponing his planned visit to China at the last minute. Since the first incident, other flying objects have been sighted over Canada and the United States, before being shot down.
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