China claims multiple U.S. balloons have flown in its airspace over past year – National | 24CA News

China on Monday stated greater than 10 U.S. high-altitude balloons have flown in its airspace throughout the previous yr with out its permission, following Washington’s accusation that Beijing operates a fleet of surveillance balloons world wide.

The Chinese allegation comes after the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that had crossed from Alaska to South Carolina, sparking a brand new disaster in bilateral relations which have spiraled to their lowest degree in many years.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gave no particulars in regards to the alleged U.S. balloons, how they’d been handled or whether or not they had authorities or army hyperlinks.

“It is also common for U.S. balloons to illegally enter the airspace of other countries,” Wang stated at a each day briefing. “Since last year, U.S. high-altitude balloons have illegally flown over China’s airspace more than 10 times without the approval of Chinese authorities.”

Wang stated the U.S. ought to “first reflect on itself and change course, rather than smear and instigate a confrontation.”

China says the balloon shot down by the U.S. was an unmanned airship made for meteorological analysis that had been blown off beam. It has accused the U.S. of overreacting by taking pictures it down and threatened to take unspecified motion in response.

2:27Biden gave order to shoot down unknown object ‘out of an abundance of caution’: White House

Following the incident, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a go to to Beijing that many had hoped would put the brakes on the sharp decline in relations over Taiwan, commerce, human rights and threatening Chinese actions within the disputed South China Sea.

Also Monday, the Philippines accused a Chinese coast guard ship of concentrating on a Philippine coast guard vessel with a military-grade laser and briefly blinding a few of its crew within the South China Sea, calling it a “blatant” violation of Manila’s sovereign rights.

Wang stated a Philippine coast guard vessel had trespassed into Chinese waters with out permission on Feb. 6 and that Chinese coast guard vessels responded “professionally and with restraint.” China claims just about all the strategic waterway and has been steadily build up its maritime forces and island outposts.

“China and the Philippines are maintaining communication through diplomatic channels in this regard,” Wang stated. China’s Defense Ministry didn’t instantly reply to a query in regards to the incident.

2:11China admits 2nd balloon over Latin America is theirs, entered airspace ‘by mistake’

Adding to tensions, a U.S. fighter jet shot down an “unidentified object” over Lake Huron on Sunday on orders from President Joe Biden. It was the fourth such downing in eight days in a unprecedented chain of occasions over U.S. airspace that Pentagon officers imagine has no peacetime precedent.

The Chinese balloon shot down by the U.S. was outfitted to detect and accumulate intelligence alerts as a part of an enormous, military-linked aerial surveillance program that focused greater than 40 international locations, the Biden administration declared Thursday, citing imagery from American U-2 spy planes.

Part of the explanation for the repeated shootdowns is a “heightened alert” following the alleged Chinese spy balloon, Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of NORAD and the U.S. Northern Command, stated in a briefing with reporters.

The United States has since positioned financial restrictions on six Chinese entities it stated are linked to Beijing’s aerospace packages as a part of its response to the incident. The U.S. House of Representatives additionally voted unanimously to sentence China for a “brazen violation” of U.S. sovereignty and efforts to “deceive the international community through false claims about its intelligence collection campaigns.”

Wang, the Chinese spokesperson, repeated China’s dismissal of such claims, saying, “the frequent firing of advanced missiles by the U.S. to shoot down the objects is an overreaction of overexertion.”

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