China’s most senior diplomat has described the shooting down of a balloon by the US as “absurd and hysterical”, as well as an abuse of the use of force. Speaking on stage at the Munich security conference on Saturday, Wang Yi said: “It does not show the US is strong; on the contrary it shows it is weak”. The foreign affairs director said he believed the shooting down was part of an attempt to divert attention from the domestic problems of the Biden administration. He asked the US: “There are…
Tag: US foreign policy
Beware: we could be entering a dangerous new era of US-China relations | Christopher S Chivvis
Much uncertainty still surrounds China’s balloon spying program and the other mysterious objects that have now been identified over North American airspace. One thing seems certain, however: incidents like these could too easily spiral out of control in the future, ending in disaster. Unless something is done, dangerous waters lie ahead. Unfortunately, both sides are reluctant to do what’s needed. Let’s make no bones about it. It would be better if China didn’t spy on the United States. Any US leader would be hard pressed not to shoot down a…
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…
Spy balloons, UFOs and a standoff with China: Politics Weekly America | podcast
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China claims US balloons flew over Tibet and Xinjiang as spying row rumbles on
Diplomatic friction has worsened between the United States and China after Beijing claimed, without evidence, that US high-altitude balloons flew over its Xinjiang and Tibet regions, and threatened unspecified measures against US entities for undermining Chinese sovereignty. Washington and Beijing are locked in a tussle over flying objects after the US military this month shot down what it called a Chinese spy balloon over the coast of South Carolina. Beijing said it was a civilian research vehicle mistakenly blown off course, and that Washington overreacted. This week, China has claimed…
Competitor or adversary? The west struggles to define its relationship with Beijing
If you want to solve a problem, it helps to be able to define it, but when it comes to a problem like China, western leaders have been struggling to find the right words. Liz Truss sought to designate China as a “threat” to Britain, but did not stay prime minister long enough for that to become established policy. Her successor, Rishi Sunak, has opted for the less combative “systemic challenge” but he is under pressure from backbench MPs to follow Truss’s path and call Beijing a “strategic threat”. Sunak…
Chinese spy balloon may have been blown off intended course – report
The US is reportedly examining the possibility that the Chinese spy balloon was pushed off course by strong winds when it entered US airspace, having tracked it since its launch days earlier. Of the four flying objects shot down by the US in recent weeks, only the first has been attributed to Chinese surveillance efforts. The balloon took off from China’s Hainan island, before travelling on a path which appeared to go over Guam, according to the Washington Post on Tuesday. It then took an “unexpected” turn to the north,…
Tuesday briefing: Why is the US suddenly spying so many UFOs?
Good morning. UFOs are being shot down over North America, and one of them is octagonal. OK, that’s a slightly breathless account of events since a Chinese balloon was sighted over Montana 10 days ago, and aliens probably aren’t involved – but the full story is almost as interesting. After that first balloon was brought down and US secretary of state Anthony Blinken postponed a trip to Beijing in response, three other mysterious objects have been taken out in US and Canadian airspace in the last few days – the…
What is ‘sky trash’ and is it linked to the mystery objects shot down by US?
Mystery still surrounds the latest flying objects shot down by the US over northern Alaska, Canada’s central Yukon territory and Lake Huron in Michigan in the last week. Unlike the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February, US authorities have been mostly unwilling to speculate on where the last three objects originate from – or even to characterise what they are. However, according to CBS’s veteran national security correspondent, David Martin, officials have apparently not ruled out whether at least…
US shoots down ‘octagonal’ flying object near military sites in Michigan
The US military has shot down a third flying object over North American airspace in three days, as the air force general overseeing the airspace said he would not rule out any explanation for the objects yet. The high-altitude unidentified object, described as an “octagonal structure” with strings attached to it, was shot down over Lake Huron in Michigan on Sunday. It is understood to have been the same item that was picked up by radar over Montana on Saturday. At the point it was struck by an air-to-air missile…