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EYE IN THE SKY?
Pentagon denies China’s claim that ‘spy balloon’ is for weather research as General says US ‘knows it’s surveillance’
THE Pentagon has slammed the Chinese government's claims that the alleged spy balloon is "for weather research" as the US rules the object is for "surveillance."
The high-altitude spy object has continued to move eastward, hovering over the middle of the US continent, General Patrick Ryder said on Friday.
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Ryder said the surveillance balloon, which has "violated US airspace and international law," has the ability to maneuver and is operating at an altitude of approximately 60,000 feet.
However, he failed to reveal who or how the balloon is operating.
The Pentagon said the object has a large payload attached underneath the surveillance component.
Ryder reassured the American public that the Chinese spy object poses "no military or physical threat to the people on the ground."
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The Pentagon's update comes after the government claimed the balloon is a "civilian airship used for meteorological research" that was pushed off course.
said the airship had limited steering capabilities and “deviated far from its planned course” because of winds.
“The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into U.S. airspace due to force majeure,” the country said in a statement.
The US has ruled the balloon - the size of three bus lengths - is a "surveillance" object.
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"Clearly, the intent of this balloon is for surveillance," a US official said.
Eyewitness reports of a high-altitude object hovering over mounted on Thursday as Pentagon officials admitted they had been tracking the enormous craft for days.
The high-altitude balloon was spotted over Billings, Montana, on Wednesday after it reportedly flew over 's Aleutian Islands, through , and into The Treasure State, reported.
Officials said the balloon had flown over areas in Montana containing sensitive airbases and nuclear missiles in underground silos.
Montana is home to the Malmstrom Air Force Base, which houses one of the three nuclear missile fields in the US.
It is home to 150 intercontinental ballistic missile silos.
Ryder said on Friday that shooting down the spy balloon "was an option," but for now, they're going to continue to "monitor and review options."
Former President has called for the suspected spy balloon to be shot down immediately.
"SHOOT DOWN THE BALLOON," Trump seethed on his Truth Social platform.
On the other hand, President Joe Biden was brief and requested military options for bringing down the object safely.
At a press briefing in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that authorities were still learning about the matter.
“We have no intention to violate other countries’ sovereignty and airspace,” Ning said.
“We are gathering and verifying the facts. We hope the relevant parties will handle the matter in a cool-headed way,” she added.
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STRAINED RELATIONSHIP
The advantages of balloons over satellites include the ability to scan vast swathes of territory from closer in and to be able to spend more time over an area.
And unlike satellites, which require space launchers that cost hundreds of millions of dollars, balloons can be launched very cheaply.
The balloons are not directly steered but can be roughly guided to a target area by changing altitudes to catch different wind currents.
The US military has tracked other spy balloons in recent years, according to a senior US defense official.
The alleged spying comes just days before a planned trip to Beijing by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Blinken was due to arrive in China on Friday, however, the trip has since been postponed due to the corners of the surveillance object.
“We’ve assessed it would not be conducive or constructive to travel to Beijing right now,” one official told reporters on Friday.
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“And I think, candidly speaking, in this current environment, I think it would have significantly narrowed the agenda that we would have been able to address.”
Blinken was due to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, on Sunday and Monday, in what was to be the first visit to Beijing by a US secretary of state since 2018.
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