Tag: United States Defense and Military Forces

Balloon Incident Reveals More Than Spying as Competition With China Intensifies

Chin@Strategy

Of course, there is nothing new about superpowers spying on one another, even from balloons. President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized surveillance of the Soviet Union by lofting cameras on balloons in the mid-1950s, flying them “over Soviet bloc countries under the guise of meteorological research,” according to an article published by the National Archives in 2009. It “yielded more protests from the Kremlin than it did useful intelligence,” the author, David Haight, an archivist at the Eisenhower Library, reported. With the advent of the first spy satellites, the balloons appeared…

Downing of Chinese Spy Balloon Ends Chapter in a Diplomatic Crisis

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Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, alerted Mr. Biden. By Wednesday, when the balloon had made its way to the skies above Billings, Mont., Pentagon officials were alarmed because the state is home to the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, one of three U.S. Air Force bases that operate and maintain intercontinental ballistic missiles. One Pentagon official described shock at what officials viewed as a blatant, and poorly concealed, effort at spying. A senior Biden administration official called the move audacious.…

U.S. Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon Off the Coast of the Carolinas

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WASHINGTON — The United States shot down a Chinese spy balloon on Saturday that had spent the last week traversing the country, American officials said, an explosive end to a drama that put a diplomatic crisis between the world’s two great powers onto television screens in real time. The balloon, which spent five days traveling in a diagonal southeast route from Idaho to the Carolinas, had moved off the coast by midday Saturday and was over the Atlantic Ocean. The Federal Aviation Administration had paused departures and arrivals at airports…

Chinese Spy Balloon or ‘Civilian Device’?

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WASHINGTON — American military officials on Thursday said they had detected a “high-altitude surveillance balloon” launched by China floating in the skies of Montana, causing a diplomatic panic that led Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken to postpone a planned trip to Beijing. On Friday, Chinese officials declared that the floating orb was a “mainly meteorological” balloon and described its drift into American airspace as caused by “force majeure” — forces beyond a party’s control, which cannot be considered a violation. The development comes months after President Biden and President…

U.S. Detects Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon Hovering Over Northwest

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed his trip to China after a surveillance balloon was detected flying over the U.S. Read the latest. WASHINGTON — The United States has detected what it says is a Chinese surveillance balloon that has been hovering over the northwestern United States, the Pentagon said on Thursday, a discovery that comes days before Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s visit to Beijing. President Biden has chosen, for now, not to shoot down the balloon after a recommendation from Pentagon officials that doing so would…

Blinken Postpones Trip to China After Balloon Is Detected Over U.S.

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China’s Ministry of National Defense, which usually comments on military issues, did not comment. “China is a responsible country, always strictly abides by international law, and has no intention of violating any sovereign country’s territory or airspace,” Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, told a regular news briefing on Friday afternoon. But she said then that the authorities needed to check the reports. The Global Times, a Communist Party-run newspaper that has become a vehicle for pugnacious, sometimes quasi-official reactions from Beijing, suggested that the balloon reports were…

Military Deal With Philippines Signals U.S. Aim to Defend Taiwan

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WASHINGTON — President Biden and his aides have tried to reassure Chinese leaders that they do not seek to contain China in the same way the Americans did with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. But the announcement on Thursday that the U.S. military is expanding its presence in the Philippines leaves little doubt that the United States is positioning itself to constrain China’s armed forces and bolstering its ability to defend Taiwan. The announcement, made in Manila by Lloyd J. Austin III, the U.S. defense secretary, was only…

U.S. and Philippines Have a Complex Military Alliance: What to Know

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The United States and the Philippines announced a deal on Thursday that will give U.S. forces access to four more military sites in the Southeast Asian country, creating the largest American military presence there in decades. The deal, an apparent sign of warming ties between the countries after a six-year rough patch, would have strategic implications if a conflict were ever to break out in Taiwan or the South China Sea. Here is a brief history of the U.S. military alliance with the Philippines and its complex historical legacy. How…

Air Force Says Proposed Chinese-Owned Mill in North Dakota Is ‘Significant Threat’

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After more than a year of debate about whether a Chinese company’s plan to build a corn mill in North Dakota was an economic boon or a geopolitical risk, an assistant secretary of the Air Force has weighed in with a warning that the “project presents a significant threat to national security.” The letter from Assistant Secretary Andrew P. Hunter, released publicly on Tuesday by North Dakota’s senators, noted the proximity of Grand Forks Air Force Base to the proposed mill and said the project raised “near- and long-term risks…

Biden and Kishida Vow to Bolster US-Japan Alliance as China’s Power Grows

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Japan is an important member of the Quad coalition in Asia, which includes the United States, India and Australia and was formed in part to counter Chinese power in the Indo-Pacific region. Chinese officials say it is obvious the United States is trying to use alliances and partnerships in the region to constrain China, including the Quad as well as AUKUS, the new security coalition formed by the United States, Britain and Australia. The United States and Japan also announced on Friday a new agreement to cooperate on the exploration…