WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Chinese reconnaissance balloon had flown over the United States for several days, U.S. officials said.
Fighters were mobilized, but military leaders advised President Joe Biden not to launch balloons out of the sky because debris could pose a security threat, Biden accepted that advice said a U.S. official.
An official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters that the United States “protected” the balloon as it entered US airspace and was observed by a manned US military aircraft.
Separately, Canada’s Ministry of Defense said a “high-altitude surveillance balloon” had been spotted and was monitoring a “second possible incident,” without giving further details.
“The U.S. government has spotted and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon just over the continental United States,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told reporters. “Balloons now fly well above commercial air traffic and pose no military or physical threat to people on the ground.”
“I would like to emphasize that speculation and hype cannot help us properly resolve the issue until the facts are clear,” he said, adding that China complies with international law.
“China has no intention of encroaching on the territories and airspace of sovereign states,” said Mao Zedong.
A US official said he had raised the issue with China through diplomatic channels. “We let them know how seriously we take this issue,” said a US official.
A U.S. official said the value of the balloon was “limited from an intelligence perspective.”
Blinken is scheduled to visit China next week for a visit agreed to by Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in November. It was not clear how the discovery of the reconnaissance balloon would affect these plans.
Relations between China and the United States have deteriorated in recent years, especially after his August visit to Taiwan by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with dramatic Chinese military exercises near the autonomous island. .
Since then, Washington and Beijing have been in more frequent contact, trying to prevent ties from souring.
Defense expert John Palacini estimated the size of the balloon at three times his bus length.
One of his officials said the trajectory would pass the balloon through many sensitive locations, but declined to give details. Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana has 150 ICBM silos.
Another US official said the balloon was tracked near the Aleutian Islands and Canada before entering the United States.
Such balloons typically operate at altitudes of 80,000 to 120,000 feet (24,000 to 37,000 m), well above the altitudes at which commercial air traffic flies. The most powerful fighter jets typically don’t operate above 65,000 feet, but reconnaissance aircraft like the U-2 service his ceiling above 80,000 feet.
From military spy satellites in space to advanced electronic reconnaissance planes and submarines, the United States routinely deploys a variety of tools to monitor China’s military buildup, analysts and diplomats say. China has often complained about US surveillance, including using ships and planes near Chinese military exercises.
Spy balloons have flown over the United States several times in recent years, but the balloons seemed to last longer than previous instances, he said, one of the U.S. officials.
