This will not lighten relations between Washington and Beijing. According to US officials, the Pentagon has been monitoring a Chinese spy balloon flying at high altitude over US territory for several days.
“We take steps to protect ourselves against the collection of sensitive information”, first said, Thursday, February 2, a senior US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He insisted on “the limited added value in terms of information gathering” of the craft described as a fairly large balloon. “We considered it to be large enough for the debris to cause damage” if he had been shot in a populated area, he explained.
The Pentagon spokesman, Pat Ryder, then clarified that the United States and Canadian Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) was monitoring the movements of the balloon, which however does not present any “military or physical risk to people on the ground”.
“Clearly, this balloon is intended for surveillance and its current trajectory takes it over sensitive sites” including nuclear silos, continued the first American official, referring to the state of Montana, in the western United States.
“A higher altitude than commercial air traffic”
According to Mr. Ryder, the US government continues to follow the ball that “is currently traveling at an altitude well above that of commercial air traffic and poses no military or physical threat to persons on the ground”.
The balloon entered United States airspace “several days ago” but US intelligence had been monitoring it since long before, the first source said, adding that this is not the first time that the US military has seen such an intrusion.
Mr. Ryder said the United States has contacted Chinese officials through multiple channels and conveyed to them the seriousness of the situation. The Pentagon’s announcement comes days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to visit China. It’s uncertain whether this will affect his travel plans, which the State Department has yet to officially announce.