The United States is hot on the trail of a alleged Chinese surveillance balloon which has been flying over US airspace for a couple of days, but the Pentagon has decided don’t knock it down due to the risks of damage to people on the ground, according to official sources reported on Thursday.
A senior defense official told Pentagon reporters that the United States has “much trust” in that it is a Chinese high-altitude balloon and that it was flying over sensitive places to collect information. One of the places where the balloon was sighted was Montana, where one of the three silo fields of nuclear missiles of the country, in the Malmstrom Base of the Air Force. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
The Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, made a brief statement on the matter, stating that the government continues to track the globe. He said that “It currently travels at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and poses no military or physical threat to people on the ground.”
He said similar ballooning activity has been seen in recent years. He added that the United States took steps to ensure it did not collect sensitive information.
The defense official said that the US has communicated with Chinese officials through multiple channels and has communicated to them the seriousness of the matter.
The Pentagon announcement comes days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken travels to China. It is unclear whether this will affect his travel plans, which the State Department has not formally announced.
The United States is expanding its military presence in Asia, in a series of measures aimed at countering Beijing and reassuring Indo-Pacific allies that the United States will stand with them in the face of threats from China and North Korea.
The senior defense official said the United States had fighter jets, including F-22, ready to shoot down the balloon if ordered by the White House. Ultimately, the Pentagon recommended against it, noting that although the balloon was over a sparsely populated area of Montana, Its size would create a debris field large enough to endanger the population.
The official would not specify the size of the balloon, but said it was large enough that, despite its high altitude, commercial pilots could see it.
The official said that what worried them about this launch was the altitude at which the balloon flew and the time it remained over a place, without giving specific details.
China has sent surveillance balloons over the United States in the past. However, it has remained in US airspace much longer, according to the official.
“However, we are taking steps to protect against the collection of sensitive information by foreign intelligence services,” the official stated.
Tensions with China are especially high on numerous issues, from Taiwan and the South China Sea to human rights in the western Chinese region of xinjiang and the repression of democratic activists in Hong Kong. No less galling are China’s tacit support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its refusal to curb the expansion of North Korea’s ballistic missile program, and continuing disputes over trade and technology.
On Tuesday, Taiwan deployed fighter jets, put its navy on alert and activated missile systems in response to close operations by 34 Chinese military aircraft and nine warships that are part of Beijing’s strategy to unsettle and intimidate the autonomous island democracy.
Twenty of those planes crossed the center line of the Taiwan Strait, which has long been an unofficial buffer zone between the two sides, separated during a civil war in 1949.
Beijing has also increased preparations for a possible blockade or military action against Taiwanwhich has sparked growing concern among military leaders, diplomats and elected officials of the United States, Taiwan’s main ally.
(With information from AP and AFP)
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Source-www.infobae.com