Department of Defense
US shoots down suspected spy balloon from China
A balloon hovers over Columbia. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken calls it a “Chinese surveillance balloon”. photo
© Anna Griffin/Missourian/AP/dpa
The Ballon Affair sends relations between the great powers to an all-time low. The US accuses China of espionage – Beijing denies. On Saturday, the Pentagon draws consequences.
The US Department of Defense has confirmed the launch of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic. “This afternoon, at the direction of President Biden, US warplanes (…) successfully downed the People’s Republic of China-launched and owned surveillance balloon at high altitude over the waters off the coast of South Carolina in American airspace,” Lloyd said with. Biden had already given permission to shoot down on Wednesday.
The US Department of Defense announced the sighting of the Chinese balloon on Thursday evening. The balloon was sighted over the US state of Montana, Central America and also Missouri. On Saturday, eyewitnesses reported seeing the balloon in the US state of North Carolina, in the eastern United States.
The US accused China of espionage. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the penetration of the “surveillance balloon” into US airspace “unacceptable” and “irresponsible”. China firmly rejected the allegations of espionage on Saturday, speaking of a research balloon that was thrown off course by “force majeure”. “We do not accept groundless speculation and propaganda,” Beijing’s foreign ministry quoted top foreign policy chief Wang Yi as saying on Saturday.