A Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States earlier this year before being shot down did not collect information as it went across the country, the Pentagon said on Thursday. “We assess that it did not collect while it was flying over the US,” Pentagon spokesman Brig Gen Pat Ryder told reporters. The balloon spent a week flying over the United States and Canada before the US military shot it down off the Atlantic coast on Biden’s orders. More soon … The Guardian
Tag: China spy balloon incident 2023
Antony Blinken begins China visit that spy balloon put off
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, arrived in China on Sunday on the highest-level trip by a US official in nearly five years – one due to have happened four months ago, until a Chinese spy balloon was caught flying over US soil. Neither side expects breakthroughs during Blinken’s two-day visit, with the world’s two largest economies at odds on an array of issues such as trade, technology and regional security. The two countries have increasingly voiced an interest in seeking greater stability and see a narrow window before…
Pentagon releases selfie of US pilot flying above Chinese spy balloon
The Pentagon has released a selfie photograph snapped by the pilot of an U2 spy plane that was hurtling through the skies above the Chinese spy balloon as the US military pursued and shot it down off the coast of South Carolina earlier this month. The image clearly shows the mysterious, silvery-white sphere of the balloon with panels dangling below it and, whether intended artistically or not, a striking sight of the shadow of the US aircraft cast against the balloon. The picture was snapped by the airman on the…
Top Chinese diplomat calls US reaction to balloons ‘absurd’ – video
China’s most senior diplomat Wang Yi described the shooting down of a balloon by the US as ‘absurd’ and ‘bordering on hysteria’, as well as an abuse of the use of force. Speaking at the Munich security conference, Wang said: ‘It does not show the US is strong; on the contrary, it shows it is weak’ The Guardian
FBI lab will get to the ‘guts’ of Chinese balloon – White House
The US has finished work to recover sunken remnants of the Chinese balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina and the debris reinforces that it was for spying, officials have said. The White House national security spokesman, John Kirby, said the wreckage included “electronics and optics” but declined to say what the US had learned from it so far. “It’s a significant amount [of recovered material], including the payload structure as well as some of the electronics and the optics, and all that’s now at the FBI laboratory…
The Guardian view on China-US tensions: distrust? Then verify | Editorial
In the closing years of the cold war, as relations between the Soviet Union and US thawed, Ronald Reagan adopted a Russian proverb: trust, but verify. These days, with Sino-US relations chilling rather than warming, there is precious little trust, and limited ability to read the other’s intentions accurately. Relations were deteriorating long before the Chinese balloon floated into US airspace and the military shot it down. Everyone knows that the US spies on China and vice versa; it is also obvious, despite Beijing’s feigned outrage, that it would take…