Beijing accuses US balloons of violating its airspace

Europe1 .fr with AFP 12:07 p.m., February 13, 2023

China on Monday accused the United States of illegally sending balloons over its territory, amid tensions between Beijing and Washington after a Chinese device flew over the United States.

“Since last year alone, American balloons have flown over (the territory of) China more than ten times without any authorization,” assured a spokesman for Chinese diplomacy Wang Wenbin.

This assertion comes after the destruction in early February by the American army of a Chinese balloon flying over the United States and which, according to Washington, was a spy device.

The affair of this aerostat, presented by Beijing as a civilian device intended for meteorological surveys, prompted the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken to postpone, in extremis, a planned visit to China.

Since this incident, other flying objects have been seen over Canada and the United States, before being shot down.

The nature of these devices and their membership are not yet known.

Chinese media reported on Sunday that an unidentified flying object had been spotted off China's east coast and the military was preparing to shoot it down.

Wang Wenbin declined to comment on the information on Monday, arguing that it was up to "competent authorities".

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But the spokesperson accused American balloons of having violated Chinese space in recent months, without giving details of these incidents and inviting journalists to "turn to the American side".

Wang Wenbin, however, said that these incursions had been handled by Beijing in a "responsible and professional" manner.

Neither the US State Department nor the Pentagon responded immediately to AFP's requests.

US President Joe Biden's spokeswoman accused Beijing on Wednesday of having a "fleet of balloons for spy operations" on five continents.

Unexplained incursions

A US fighter jet shot down a new flying "object" near the Canadian border on Sunday, the latest in a series that has come to public attention since the beginning of the month.

This time it was an "octagonal" object with no visible nacelle, which flew about 6,000 meters above the state of Michigan, according to a senior US administration official.

The Pentagon said it did not currently know the nature of two other objects previously spotted -- one shot down over Alaska on Friday, one over Canada's Yukon Territory on Saturday.

Worried, the Americans watch the skies while incursions for the time unexplained follow one another in a context of heightened tensions with China.

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Only the membership of the first object, a ball, is for the moment no doubt.

Beijing had admitted that it was a civilian aircraft belonging to it.

Used according to him for meteorological data, the device would have deviated from its trajectory.

China has repeatedly castigated the use of force to destroy its balloon and refused a phone call after the incident between Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and his counterpart Wei Fenghe.