Tensions between the U.S. and China have escalated over the past week with each accusing the other of invading their respective airspaces with spy balloons. The drama began Saturday, Feb. 4, when a U.S. fighter jet shot down a flying object over the coast of South Carolina, near Charleston, which turned out to be a balloon “200 feet tall with a jetliner size payload.”
Since then, three more flying objects have been shot out of the sky by U.S. military planes, all of which seemingly entered North American airspace through Alaska or Canada at significantly lower altitudes. The latest incident occurred Sunday over the waters of Lake Huron, located off the eastern coast of Michigan. The second and third objects were shot down over northern Canada and Alaska late last week.
With American media attention now squarely on China as a prime suspect in at least the first incident, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday accused the U.S. of engaging in similar spy tactics — a claim since denied by the White House National Security Council (NSC).
NSC coordinator Adm. John Kirby downplayed the consequences of Chinese government spy apparatuses violating U.S. airspace protocols at a White House press briefing Monday, however, saying “these balloons have provided limited additive capabilities to the PRC’s other intelligence platforms used over the United States.” According to the State Department, the Chinese balloon was “likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications.”
China has also been accused of targeting Taiwan with “dozens” of spy balloons in apparent preparation for invading its southern neighbor by 2027, according to the CIA. Taiwanese government officials specifically charge China’s People’s Liberation Army of launching the balloons in an attempt to collect data to calibrate their weapon and object detection systems.
While there is reason for the U.S. government to be suspicious of China, its unlikely all four flying objects captured over the past two weeks are Chinese spy apparatuses. Rather, since the original incident off the U.S. southeastern coast, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has recalibrated its radar system to detect lower-altitude and slower moving objects, seemingly propelled solely by the jet stream. This change at NORAD has caused more airborne objects to be detected, with the subsequent three that were downed considered possible national security threats and authorized to be shot out of the sky by President Biden.
NSC’s Kirby also announced the White House has created a new “interagency team to study the broader policy implications for detection, analysis and disposition of unidentified aerial objects that pose either safety or security risks,” but admitted the government does not know who is behind the three latest incidents.
