U.S. intelligence services have linked the alleged Chinese spy balloon shot down last Saturday to a major surveillance program orchestrated by the Chinese military, which is why it has warned its allies about the Chinese maneuvers.
In addition to the United States, China has flown surveillance balloons over military assets in countries and areas of emerging strategic interest to the Asian giant, including Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines, according to senior U.S. officials told the newspaper ‘The Washington Post’.
U.S. officials said the aircraft, operated by the People’s Liberation Army, have been detected on five continents. «What the Chinese have done is to take incredibly old technology and basically couple it with modern communications and observation capabilities,» all in the interest of gaining intelligence on other nations’ armed forces, an official told The Washington Post.
In this regard, Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman on Monday led a briefing session with 40 U.S. embassies detailing what information about Chinese espionage they can share with allies and partners, including countries such as Japan.
The U.S. Army shot down a Chinese balloon Saturday over the South Carolina stuff days after it was detected flying over U.S. airspace. The delay in shooting it down has sparked criticism of the Joe Biden Administration from Republicans.
For its part, the Government of China confirmed on Friday that the balloon located by U.S. authorities in U.S. airspace was its property, although it qualified its «civilian nature» and its purpose for «scientific research».
A second Chinese balloon was located on Friday over Latin America, a sighting confirmed by the Colombian Air Force and which led Costa Rica to send its complaints to the Government of China. Meanwhile, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, indicated that this second balloon would have entered «by mistake» in the airspace of several countries, insisting that Beijing respects international law and «does not represent any threat to any country».
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
