The Chinese spy balloon was clearly visible in the US-released selfie taken by a pilot just before it was shot down.
The selfie was taken from the cockpit of a U-2 espionage plane and features both the balloon floating above the US mainland and the shadow cast by the pilot’s aircraft.
On February 3, while the balloon was hovering close to Kansas, a pilot shot a selfie. The next day, the US brought the balloon to ground.
The US Department of Defense released the selfie on Wednesday (Picture: Reuters)
A few days later, CNN reported that a selfie taken in the cockpit had ‘gained legendary status in both NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) and the Pentagon’.
The U-2 is a high-altitude reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft with one seat.
‘It delivers critical imagery and signals intelligence to decision makers throughout all phases of conflict, including peacetime indications and warnings, low-intensity conflict, and large-scale hostilities,’ according to the Air Force.
U-2 planes have ‘glider-like characteristics’ and are usually ‘flown at altitudes over 70,000 feet’, according to the Air Force. Pilots are required to ‘wear a full pressure suit similar to those worn by astronauts’.
The Chinese spy balloon was shot down on February 4 (Picture: AP)
The US first spotted the balloon on January 28. China claimed that it was only a weather research ‘airship’ blown off course.
But the State Department stated that fly-bys showed that the ‘high-altitude balloon was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations’.
The US earlier this month released several photos of the shot-down balloon being retrieved by Navy divers in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina.
One of those images, taken in the dark, showed nine Navy crew members dragging white plastic material and tubes on board a small boat. Another photo depicted ten crew members pulling white material as their vessel tilted, with a second boat next to it.
A large Chinese balloon that the US shot down earlier this month off the coast of South Carolina has all of its debris recovered. Despite China’s denials, analysis to date indicates that the balloon was used for surveillance.
Officials claim that the US is confident that Navy, Coast Guard, and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) personnel have recovered all of the balloon’s wreckage from the ocean floor, including crucial payload gear that might reveal what data the payload was able to monitor and collect.
The US Northern Command stated in a statement on Friday that the balloon’s final remains were being sent to the FBI for study and that recovery efforts had concluded on Thursday.
In a statement on Friday, the US Northern Command said that the last remnants of the balloon were being sent to the FBI for study, and that recovery efforts had concluded on Thursday.
“Final pieces of debris are being transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory in Virginia for counterintelligence exploitation, as has occurred with the previous surface and subsurface debris recovered,” according to the statement.
The end of the recovery efforts came after several weeks of tense relations between Beijing and Washington, with China denying that the balloon was for surveillance purposes and accusing the US of overreaction.
Speaking to MSNBC News on Friday in Munich, US Vice President Kamala Harris said the US was confident that the balloon was being “used by China to spy on the American people”.
“That balloon was not helpful, which is why we shot it down,” Harris said.
The incident heightened tensions between the US and China.
Chinese military officials refused calls from their US counterparts after the balloon was shot down.
Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a scheduled visit to China following the balloon incident, which he said “undermined” the purpose of the trip. It has not been rescheduled.
However, the Biden administration has also said that the US is not seeking conflict with China, which has the second-largest economy in the world after the US and is seen as essential for tackling global issues such as the climate crisis.
“We are not looking for a new cold war,” Biden said in remarks on Thursday. “I expect to be speaking with President Xi. I hope we are going to get to the bottom of this, but I make no apologies for taking down that balloon.”
The US has also shot down three unidentified objects in US and Canadian airspace over the last several weeks, in a series of bizarre incidents that have prompted speculation and rumours about the origin and nature of the objects.
On Thursday, Biden said that the objects were harmless and probably connected to private entities or research, adding that it is not likely that the three objects were connected to the Chinese balloon that the US shot down off the coast of South Carolina on February 4.
Tensions between the two countries are not new: China and the US have previously traded accusations over issues like trade and technology, human rights violations, and China’s desire to bring the self-governing island of Taiwan under its control.
According to spokesman John Kirby, the objects “may be tied to commercial or research entities and therefore benign.”
The three downed aircraft’s wreckage has not yet been found or recovered by US or Canadian authorities.
Beijing previously charged the US with having “a trigger-happy overreaction.”
China has denied that one of its balloons, which was destroyed by a US fighter jet earlier this month off South Carolina, was being used for espionage, saying it was merely a weather-monitoring airship that had blown off course.
At Tuesday’s daily news conference, Mr Kirby said it will be difficult to determine the purpose or origin of the three other objects that were destroyed over Alaska, Canada, and Michigan until the debris is found and analysed.
“We haven’t seen any indication or anything that points specifically to the idea that these three objects were part of the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] spying programme,” the White House National Security Council told reporters, “or that they were definitively involved in external intelligence collection efforts.”
A “leading explanation” being considered by US intelligence, he added, was that “these could be balloons that were simply tied to commercial or research entities and therefore benign”.
But he noted that no company, organisation, or government had yet laid claim to the objects.
In the most recent strike – over Lake Huron – the first Sidewinder missile fired by a US F-16 warplane missed its target, the top US general has confirmed.
“First shot missed.” “Second shot hit,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley during a visit to Brussels on Tuesday.
“We go to great lengths to make sure that the airspace is clear and the backdrop is clear up to the max effective range of the missile. And in this case, the missiles land, or the missile landed, harmlessly in the water of Lake Huron.”
A spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, criticised the American response.
“Many in the US have been asking, ‘what good can such costly action possibly bring to the US and its taxpayers?’” said Wang Wenbin on Tuesday.
Watch: ‘What’s going on?’ The mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds
Sensors from the alleged Chinese spy balloon shot down over the US on 4 February were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean on Monday, and are being analysed by the FBI.
Search crews found “significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified” off the coast of South Carolina, said US Northern Command.
The Chinese balloon was being tracked by US intelligence since its lift-off from a base on Hainan Island on the south coast of China earlier this month, US media report.
Shortly after take-off the balloon drifted towards the US islands of Guam and Hawaii before moving north towards Alaska, American officials told CBS News, the BBC’s partner.
The unnamed officials say that its path indicates that it could have been blown off course by weather, but that it was back under the Chinese control again by the time it reached the continental US.
The entire US Senate received a classified briefing on Tuesday about the matter from military leaders.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the chamber would launch an inquiry into why the aircraft were not detected earlier.
“It’s a good question,” Mr Schumer told reporters. “We need to answer it.”
Western nations are “under the full press of Chinese espionage,” according to Sir Alex Younger, who oversaw the UK Intelligence Service from 2014 to 2020.
In the past week, the US military has shot down four objects, including a balloon believed to be a Chinese spy.
According to Sir Alex, the UK must impose restrictions on the nations it will tolerate because they “behave in an unacceptable way.”
A Chinese spy balloon was shot down by the US military on February 4 after flying over important military locations in North America. The object, according to China, was a weather balloon that went astray.
Since then, the three other “unidentified objects” have been downed across North America.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir Alex said “this balloon scenario demonstrates there is no trust” between China and western nations.
“This is a gross and really visibly transgression of the sovereignty of many nations.”
The UK must recognise “we’re in a competition” with China, Sir Alex said.
He said: “We need to wake up to this.”
“We need to double down on the strengths that we possess to face this systemic competition that’s going on.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the government will do “whatever it takes” to keep the UK safe from spy balloons.
On Monday, the prime minister said a “quick reaction alert force” of RAF Typhoon jets was on standby 24/7 to police UK airspace.
The rapid response from Washington to Beijing’s accusation widens the dispute that started last week after the US military allegedly shot down what it believes to be aChinese spy balloon.
More than ten times in the previous year, China has accused the US of illegally using high-altitude balloons to fly over its territory. Each time, the US government has responded with a denial.
Days prior to the allegation on Monday, the US shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that had travelled from Alaska to South Carolina, igniting a fresh crisis in relations between the two largest economies in the world. Beijing has maintained that the object was a weather craft that had veered off course.
“It is also common for US balloons to illegally enter the airspace of other countries,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a news briefing.
“Since last year, US high-altitude balloons have illegally flown over China’s airspace more than 10 times without the approval of Chinese authorities,” Wang said without giving details about how they had been dealt with or whether they had government or military links.
The US should “first reflect on itself and change course, rather than smear and instigate a confrontation”, Wang said.
The White House swiftly denied China’s assertions.
“Not true. Not doing it. Just absolutely not true,” national security spokesman John Kirby said in an interview with MSNBC. “We are not flying balloons over China.”
After the downing of the alleged Chinese airship last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelled a visit to Beijing that many had hoped would put the brakes on the sharp decline in relations over Taiwan, trade, human rights and Chinese claims in the disputed South China Sea.
The US has since placed economic restrictions on six Chinese entities it said are linked to China’s aerospace programmes.
US Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves has said his department “will not hesitate to continue to use” such restrictions and other regulatory and enforcement tools “to protect US national security and sovereignty”.
The US House of Representatives also voted unanimously to condemn China for a “brazen violation” ofUS sovereignty and efforts to “deceive the international community through false claims about its intelligence collection campaigns”.
Separately on Monday, the Philippines accused a Chinese coastguard ship of targeting a Philippine coastguard vessel with a military-grade laser and temporarily blinding some of its crew in the South China Sea. Manila called the incident a “blatant” violation of the Philippines’ sovereign rights.
Wang said a Philippine coastguard vessel had trespassed into Chinese waters without permission on February 6 and that Chinese coastguard vessels responded “professionally and with restraint”. China claims virtually all of the South China Sea and has been steadily building up its maritime forces and island outposts in the strategic waterway.
“China and the Philippines are maintaining communication through diplomatic channels in this regard,” Wang said.
In nine days, US fighter jets have shot down four flying objects. Here is what we currently know.
Concerns about North American security and strained relations with China have increased as a result of the shooting down of a large Chinese balloon off the US coast and the subsequent shooting down of three smaller objects over Canada, Alaska, and Lake Huron on the US-Canada border.
Here is what we know so far:
What were the four objects?
Late last month, a giant Chinese balloon – termed a “spycraft” by US officials – drifted for days through US skies before being shot down on February 4 by an F-22 jet off the South Carolina coast.
China insisted the balloon was conducting weather research and had gone astray.
The Pentagon said it had a gondola the size of three buses and was equipped with multiple antennas, and had solar panels large enough to power several intelligence-gathering sensors.
It also appeared to be able to steer itself, using winds and possibly a propulsion mechanism, officials said.
On February 10, US fighter jets downed another object off northern Alaska. It was much smaller than the previously shot-down balloon and lacked any system of propulsion or control, officials said.
On February 11, a US F-22 jet shot down a “high-altitude airborne object” over Canada’s far northwest Yukon territory, saying it posed a threat to the civilian flight. Canada described it as cylindrical and about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle car.
On February 12, President Joe Biden ordered US warplanes to down yet another unidentified object over Lake Huron. The object was described as an octagonal structure with strings hanging off it. It posed a hazard to civil aviation as it flew at about 20,000 feet (6,000 metres), officials said.
The Pentagon said none of the four objects appeared armed or posed any threat of attack.
Officials would not comment on the origin or function of the three objects that came after the Chinese balloon.
What has been recovered?
Military teams working from planes, boats and minisubs are scouring the shallow waters off South Carolina for debris from the balloon, with military images showing the recovery of a large piece.
Operations to recover the second object continue on sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska. Recovery teams are searching for debris from the third object in the Yukon, while US and Canadian teams were preparing an operation to recover the fourth object’s debris.
Heino Klinck, former US deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia from 2019 to 2021, said there is concern about the lack of information about the flying objects over North America.
“It’s rather odd, frankly, that in a span of three days that the US air force shot down three objects in the air, and our government has yet to tell us anything about if there is a continuous threat or the origins of the aircraft,” Klinck told Al Jazeera.
What was the objects’ purpose?
US officials say the Chinese balloon, which flew over sensitive US nuclear missile sites, had surveillance equipment that could intercept telecommunications.
They said such balloons skirted US territory at least four times in the past six years, but none had flown deep into US territory.
The balloons were part of a “fleet” operated by China that has conducted surveillance on some 40 countries over five continents, US officials said.
Why so many objects now?
On Sunday, Melissa Dalton, assistant defence secretary for homeland defence, said after the Chinese balloon was detected, US air defence made adjustments to radar systems to be able to detect smaller and slower-moving objects in the atmosphere.
Analysts said normally, US and Canadian intelligence constantly receive huge amounts of raw data and generally screened some out to focus on the threat of incoming missiles, not slow-moving objects like balloons.
Beijing denounced the first balloon’s downing, saying it “seriously violated international practice”. It reserved the right “to use necessary means to deal with similar situations”.
Dalton said on Sunday that after Beijing rejected US overtures for several days, US officials have had “contacts” with China over the balloon.
In a joint operation by the North American neighbours, a US fighter jet shot down an unidentified cylindrical object over Canada.
After a week-long saga over a rumoured Chinese spy balloon, North America appeared to be on high alert. The shootdown on Saturday was the second such action in as many days.
The shootdown was first reported by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who also promised that his country’s forces would recover and examine the aircraft’s wreckage.
Canadian defence minister Anita Anand declined to speculate on the origin of the object, which she said was small and cylindrical in shape. She stopped short of describing it as a balloon but said it was smaller than the Chinese balloon shot down off South Carolina’s coast a week ago, but similar in appearance.
She said it was flying at 12,100 metres (40,000 feet) and posed a risk to civilian air traffic when it was shot down at 3:41 EST (20:41 GMT).
“There is no reason to believe that the impact of the object in Canadian territory is of any public concern,” Anand told a news conference.
The Pentagon said the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected the object over Alaska late on Friday evening. US fighter jets from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, monitored the object as it crossed over into Canadian airspace, where Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft joined the formation.
“A US F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory using an AIM 9X missile following close coordination between US and Canadian authorities,” Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said in a statement
US President Joe Biden authorised the country’s military to work with Canada to take down the high-altitude craft after a call between Biden and Trudeau, the Pentagon said. The White House said Biden and Trudeau agreed to continue close coordination to “defend our airspace”.
“The leaders discussed the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin,” the White House said in a statement.
Shortly after the 3:41 pm (2041 GMT) downing of the object, aviation authorities also shut down part of the airspace over the northwest US state of Montana after detecting what they called a “radar anomaly,” the US Northern Command said.
In a sign of jitters over possible intrusions, Northern Command said US fighter jets took to the skies but “did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits”. Skies were then reopened to commercial air traffic.
Suspected Chinese spy balloon
A day earlier, Biden ordered another shootdown of an unidentified flying object near Deadhorse, Alaska. The US military on Saturday remained tight-lipped about what, if anything, it had learned as recovery efforts were under way on the Alaskan sea ice.
The Pentagon on Friday offered only a few details, including that the object was the size of a small car, it was flying at about 12,100 metres and could not manoeuvre and appeared to be unmanned. US officials have been trying to learn about the object since it was first spotted on Thursday.
“We have no further details at this time about the object, including its capabilities, purpose or origin,” Northern Command said on Saturday.
It noted difficult arctic weather conditions, including wind chill, snow and limited daylight that could hinder search and recovery efforts.
“Personnel will adjust recovery operations to maintain safety,” Northern Command said.
On February 4, a US F-22 fighter jet brought down what the US government called a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina, following its week-long journey across the US and portions of Canada. China’s government has said it was a civilian research vessel.
Some US legislators criticised Biden for not shooting down the Chinese balloon sooner. The US military had recommended waiting until it was over the ocean out of fear of injuries from falling debris.
US personnel have been scouring the ocean to recover debris and the undercarriage of electronic gadgetry since the shootdown of the 60-meter-high (200-foot-tall) Chinese suspected surveillance balloon.
The Pentagon has said a significant amount of the balloon had already been recovered or located, suggesting US officials may soon have more information about any Chinese espionage capabilities onboard the vessel.
Sea conditions on February 10 “permitted dive and underwater unmanned vehicle (UUV) activities and the retrieval of additional debris from the sea floor,” Northern Command said.
“The public may see US Navy vessels moving to and from the site as they conduct offload and resupply activities.”
In retaliation for an alleged Chinese spy balloon that crossed US airspace, the US blacklisted six Chinese entities it claimed were connected to Beijing’s aerospace programmes.
The action is likely to intensify the diplomatic dispute between the US and China, which already worsened as a result of the surveillance balloon that the US ultimately shot down last weekend. Beijing has maintained that the balloon was a weather craft that had veered off course, while the US claimed it was equipped to detect and gather intelligence signals.
The US Bureau of Industry and Security claimed on Friday that the six Chinese companies were being pursued for “their
“The PLA is utilizing High Altitude Balloons (HAB) for intelligence and reconnaissance activities,” it said.
The US Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves said on Twitter his department “will not hesitate to continue to use” such restrictions and other regulatory and enforcement tools “to protect US national security and sovereignty”.
The Commerce Department will not hesitate to continue to use the Entity List and our other regulatory and enforcement tools to protect U.S. national security and sovereignty.
The six entities are Beijing Nanjiang Aerospace Technology Co, China Electronics Technology Group Corporation 48th Research Institute, Dongguan Lingkong Remote Sensing Technology Co, Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group Co, Guangzhou Tian-Hai-Xiang Aviation Technology Co, and Shanxi Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group Co.
The blacklisting will make it more difficult for the five companies and one research institute to obtain US technology exports.
Also on Friday, a US military fighter jet shot down an unknown object flying off the remote northern coast of Alaska on orders from President Joe Biden.
The object was downed because it reportedly posed a threat to the safety of civilian flights rather than any knowledge it was engaged in surveillance.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters the “high-altitude object” was flying at 12,000 metres (40,000 ft) over Alaska, posing a threat to civilian aviation.
“We don’t know who owns this object,” Kirby said during a news conference, adding that it was significantly smaller than the Chinese balloon that flew over the country last week.
“We’re calling this an object because that’s the best description we have right now,” he said. “We don’t have any information that would confirm a stated purpose for this object.”
As competition between the two nations grows, the fallout from the alleged Chinese “spy” balloon that flew over the United States has solidified a nearly bipartisan consensus in Washington about the need to “stand up” to Beijing.
Despite the heightened tensions, US officials emphasise that they are still open to dialogue with China. However, many politicians in Washington are using the incident as justification for tougher regulations.
During his annual State of the Union address, which was seen by an estimated 23.4 million TV viewers on Tuesday night, US President Joe Biden personally warned China against endangering US sovereignty.
“The Biden administration has shown that it is very concerned with attacks particularly from the right, from Republican critics, that they are being too soft on China,” said Tobita Chow, director of Justice Is Global, a project that advocates for a more sustainable international economy.
“And because of that pressure coming in from the right, I think we often see them leaning further in the direction of confrontational politics.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a previously scheduled trip to Beijing over the balloon incident, which the Biden administration has called an “unacceptable” violation of American sovereignty.
The US military shot down the balloon on Saturday as it flew over the Atlantic Ocean, after days of debate and congressional calls to bring it down.
In his State of the Union speech, Biden said the US is not seeking confrontation in its competition with China but warned that Washington will stand up for its interests against Beijing.
“As we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country — and we did,” he said.
What do we know about the balloon?
Little is publicly known about the Chinese balloon or what it was doing in US airspace. Nonetheless, its presence caused a significant political stir and produced countless news headlines and wall-to-wall coverage.
China initially expressed regret for the incident, describing the balloon as a civilian airship used for meteorological research that “deviated far from its planned course”. Beijing later condemned the US hit to bring down the aircraft.
But the Pentagon insisted it was a “high-altitude surveillance balloon”, although US defence officials said the balloon did not pose a “military or physical threat”.
Still, some Republican lawmakers kept describing the aircraft as a risk to national security.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton denounced the Biden administration for allowing the balloon to traverse the continental US for days before shooting it down.
Cotton told Fox News earlier this week that he felt the delay in Biden’s response was “dangerous for the American people”. He also accused the administration of pushing to salvage Blinken’s visit to Beijing, which he described as “already ill-advised”.
US officials had previously said that, if the balloon were brought down over land, falling debris could “potentially cause civilian injuries or deaths or significant property damage”.
Christopher Heurlin, an associate professor of government and Asian studies at Bowdoin College in the US state of Maine, said while the balloon may not have been a direct threat to Americans, it created a “shock” in the country.
“We like to think in the United States that we live in North America and we’re oceans away from any kind of competitors — and in that sense, not very vulnerable,” Heurlin told Al Jazeera.
“Whereas having the spy balloon flying overhead, I think, does create some kind of visceral sense of vulnerability in the collective psyche.”
China has condemned the US hit on the balloon [Chad Fish via AP Photo]
As for Blinken’s trip, Heurlin said “political considerations” played a role in the decision to postpone it.
“I’m not sure that politically Biden would have been able to get away with sending Secretary of State Blinken to China under these circumstances,” he told Al Jazeera.
Chow, the director of Justice Is Global, agreed that the “panic” over the balloon likely led to postponing the visit.
“I think the Biden administration correctly judged that the balloon was not really that big of a deal,” Chow told Al Jazeera. “But they felt overwhelmed by this wave of media coverage and this very extreme freakout from the right.”
How we got here
The balloon incident came against the backdrop of growing animosity between Washington and Beijing.
Last year, the White House released a national security strategy that described China as the “most consequential geopolitical challenge” for the US. The Pentagon also prioritised competition with Beijing in its defence strategy.
Both assessments primarily focused on China, not Russia, despite the latter’s invasion of Ukraine, which has disrupted global supply chains for vital goods like food and energy and ushered in the most intense violence in Europe since World War II.
Ties between Beijing and Washington have soured over numerous points of tension in recent years, including trade issues, the status of Taiwan, China’s claims in the South China Sea and an ongoing US push against growing Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific.
The US has also been warning China against coming to Russia’s aid in Ukraine.
So how did we get here?
As Washington’s so-called “war on terror” — initiated during the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks — began to wind down, the US turned its focus to competing with China, whose economic power and push for global influence has been growing.
Chow said the root of the tensions is “neoliberal free-trade globalisation”. That economic framework, he explained, has been experiencing deeper systemic problems since the 2008 financial crisis and has led to “zero-sum competition, which then became the breeding ground for dangerous nationalist politics”.
Heurlin, the professor, linked the current state of affairs between the two countries to economics as well. He said that, with the loss of manufacturing jobs to outsourcing, the anger of many in the US has shifted to China
He added that since the rise of President Xi Jinping in 2012, Beijing has pursued an assertive foreign policy that includes a “vocal defence of Chinese interests”.
“That is something that they’ve been doing really to appeal to Chinese nationalists back home,” Heurlin told Al Jazeera.
“So I think on both sides, this is something that’s been happening for a while. And then especially once Donald Trump comes to the American presidency and starts the trade war with China, that’s when relations really start to bottom out.”
Ultimately, Heurlin said, the US government’s goal is to “maintain its status quo position as the most militarily and economically powerful country in the world”.
What’s next for US-China relations?
Despite the deteriorating relationship, officials in both countries continue to call for cooperation on shared global challenges — namely combatting climate change and the COVID pandemic — as well as warn against confrontation.
But for the foreseeable future, the tensions show no sign of subsiding.
“What we should anticipate is that conflict between the US and China is going to continue and build and escalate over time,” Chow said. “And if things don’t change, then yes, this is going to be a long-term great power conflict that is going to have enormous consequences for people in the US and China and around the world.”
Heurlin echoed that prediction but said he hopes that, with China ending its“zero COVID” policies, more people-to-people interactions between US and Chinese citizens would soften public opinion in both countries.
“It’s getting harder and harder to manage the US-China relationship from the perspective of both Beijing and Washington and I don’t think there really is any kind of magical solution,” he said.
In an effort to recover what Washington claims was a Chinese “surveillance balloon,” which was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean after being spotted in US airspace last week, the US Navy has released the first official pictures.
A rigid-hull inflatable boat was pictured being leaned over by US Navy members from an explosive ordnance group as they pulled in large sections of the balloon’s white outer fabric and shell structure on Tuesday.
Using underwater drones, warships and inflatable vessels, the Navy is carrying out an extensive operation to gather all the pieces of the device, which spent several days flying over North America last week before being shot down on Saturday off the coast of South Carolina.
The balloon measured approximately 60 metres (200 ft) tall and was carrying a long sensor package underneath, which the head of US Northern Command, General Glen VanHerck, said earlier this week was about the size of a small, regional jet.
While Beijing has said the balloon was an “unmanned civilian airship” that was primarily gathering weather data and had blown off course, Washington denounced its presence in US airspace as an “unacceptable” violation of the country’s sovereignty.
VanHerck said on Monday that the teams involved in the balloon recovery efforts were taking precautions to safeguard against the chance any part of the balloon was rigged with explosives.
The Navy is also using ships to map and scan the sea floor for all remaining parts of the balloon so US analysts can get a full picture of what types of sensors were used and to better understand how the balloon was able to manoeuvre.
The incident has heightened tensions between the two countries, prompting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a planned visit to the Chinese capital that had been expected to begin on Sunday.
China said the decision to shoot down the device “seriously impacted and damaged” its relationship with the US, butWhite House national security spokesperson John Kirby, on Monday, said Washington was not seeking confrontation.
Kirby dismissed China’s contention the balloon was for meteorological purposes, saying “it strains credulity … that this was some kind of weather balloon that was floating on the winds”.
On Tuesday, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that “the [Biden] administration is looking at other actions that can be taken” in response to the balloon, though he did not provide further details.
While the top Democratic legislator acknowledged that US-China relations were “tense”, Schumer defended President Joe Biden’s administration amid criticism from Republicans, saying its actions were “calm, calculated and effective”.
“This is one area where we don’t need politics. So we need Democrats and Republicans to come together,” Schumer said.
This image provided by the US Navy shows sailors recovering the balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, February 5, 2023 [US Navy via AP Photo]
Members of the Republican Party have accused the administration of failing to bring down the balloon quickly enough and taking a “weak” stance towards China.
A Pentagon spokesman said on Tuesday that China declined a US request for a phone call between the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, and his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe.
The Pentagon submitted the request for a secure call on Saturday, immediately after shooting down the balloon, Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, [China] has declined our request. Our commitment to open lines of communication will continue,” Ryder said.
Relations between the two powers have been strained in recent years by a number of issues, from disputes over technology and trade to the status of the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing sees as part of its territory.
Cooperation between the US and China, the first and second largest economies in the world, respectively, is critical to tackling global issues such as climate change.
Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping – who held in-person talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia in November – have previously stressed they are not looking for confrontation or a new Cold War.
China has announced that the object “accidentally veered over Latin America and the Caribbean” after deviating from its course. The US is currently looking for the remains of a surveillance balloon that it shot down.
On Monday, China acknowledged ownership of a balloon over Latin America and declared it to be flying for civilian purposes. This happened not long after the US destroyed a similar device on Saturday.
“It has come to be understood that the relevant unmanned airship is from China,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.
Mao also said the device, with limited self-steering capability, “seriously deviated from its scheduled route, and accidentally strayed over Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Earlier, Colombia’s air force had released a statement that it had detected possible balloon in its air defense system on Friday.
US searches for debris
After shooting down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, the US military said it is searching for the debris on Sunday off the South Carolina coast.
The Navy is working to recover the balloon and its payload,General Glen Van Herck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and US Northern Command, said on Sunday. He added that the Coast Guard was providing security for the operation.
“Members of the US Military are coordinating to collect debris; however, fragments may make it to the coastline,” the Horry County Police Department statement said.
Law enforcement officials have warned people against touching any debris and instead call dispatchers.
CNN quoted a senior US military official as saying that multiple US Navy and Coast Guard vessels are in the area and are securing a perimeter.
According to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the debris field created by the downed balloon was 7-miles (11-kilometers) long.
How did the incident unfold?
Pentagon officials on Thursday revealed that they were tracking a suspected spy balloon belonging to China flying over the US skies for a few days.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the balloon attempted “to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States.”
The balloon was shot down a missile from an F-22 fighter after US President Joe Biden authorized the downing of the balloon.
How has China responded?
China expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with the US use of force to strike its “unmanned civilian” airship, calling it a “serious violation of international practice.”
He was referring to a summit between Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in November.
China “is paying close attention to the development of the situation” and “reserves the right to make further necessary reactions,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.
Beijing on Monday summoned the US charge d’affaires over the incident.
Republicans criticize Biden
Republican lawmakers on Sunday criticized President Biden’s handling of the situation saying he waited days to shoot down the balloon. They claimed the delay conveyed weakness toward China.
Meanwhile, Former President Donald Trump refuted claims that similar balloons were seen during his presidency.
“China had too much respect for ‘TRUMP’ for this to have happened, and it NEVER did,” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social.
Republican Representative Michael Waltz contradicted Trump’s claims, telling the Washington Post that during Trump’s tenure Chinese balloons were spotted near the US several times.
Beijing says the aircraft, which was a meteorological airship that had veered off course, was shot down in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina over the weekend has debris that the US Navy is attempting to recover. The debris fell into the Atlantic Ocean.
According to General Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and US Northern Command, the balloon was shot down in US airspace and fell into US territorial waters after having been flying at a high altitude over North America since the end of January.
“Our U.S. Navy component is currently conducting recovery operations, with the U.S. Coast Guard assisting in securing the area and maintaining public safety,” VanHerck said in a statement on Sunday.
The US said earlier that the balloon was about the size of three school buses and that debris was spread out over 11km (7 miles) of ocean.
The incident has further strained relations between the US and China with Washington cancelling Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned visit to Beijing after the discovery of the craft.
Beijing has said the uncrewed “airship” was used for meteorological research and was blown off course because of bad weather and its “limited” steering capabilities.
On Monday, Beijing urged the US to exercise restraint over the incident. It insists the balloon, which was flying at a height of about 18,300 metres (60,000 ft) before it was shot down, entered US airspace by accident.
“China firmly opposes and strongly protests against this,” China’s Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng said in remarks to the US embassy in China. “The Chinese government is closely following the development of the situation.”
Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, a spokesperson atChina’s Ministry of National Defence, said on Sunday that China reserved the right to take necessary measures in dealing with similar situations describing the US action as an “overreaction”.
The balloon first entered US airspace in Alaska on January 28 before moving into Canadian airspace on January 30. It then re-entered US airspace over northern Idaho on January 31.
Canada also confirmed the presence of the balloon in its airspace.
Surveillance balloons — typically equipped with high-tech, downward-pointing imaging gear — offer the opportunity to monitor sites at a closer range than satellites and can provide clearer images than fast-moving satellites.
While their movement is often left subject to weather patterns, they can also be equipped with a “guiding apparatus” to control their path.
The US has said the Chinese balloon was flying over sensitive sites in Montana to collect information, and recovering the remnants could provide the US with clues about China’s surveillance capabilities.
Montana is home to the Malmstrom Air Force Base, where there are some 150 silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles, including the nuclear-capable Minuteman III.
The Senate is due to be briefed on the incident including details of the balloon’s surveillance capabilities this week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, adding that the administration of President Joe Biden was considering measures against the Chinese for “their brazen activities”.
Republicans in Congress have criticised Biden for not taking action sooner.
The president has said he approved the order to shoot down the craft last week but was advised it would be best to carry out the operation over water because bringing down the balloon over land from an altitude of 18,300 metres (60,000 ft) would pose an undue risk to people below.
“Clearly this was an attempt by China to gather information, to defeat our command and control of our sensitive missile defence and nuclear weapon sites,” said Mike Turner, a Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. “And that certainly is an urgency that this administration does not recognise.”
“It defies belief to suggest there was nowhere” between Alaska and the Carolinas where the US could have safely shot down the balloon,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
Many people have been baffled by reports of a possible Chinese spy balloon floating over the US, wondering why Beijing would choose to spy on the US mainland using such a crude device.
Although the capabilities of this specific balloon are unknown, experts claim that it primarily acts as a “signal” rather than a security risk.
Days before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China, it was seen circling the state of Montana.
President Xi Jinping of China is expected to be met by the top US diplomat, who will be the first person in his position to do so.
“Beijing is probably trying to signal to Washington: ‘While we want to improve ties, we are also ever ready for sustained competition, using any means necessary’, without severely inflaming tensions.
“And what better tool for this than a seemingly innocuous balloon,” independent air-power analyst He Yuan Ming told the BBC.
Balloons are one of the oldest forms of surveillance technology. The Japanese military used them to launch incendiary bombs in the US during World War Two. They were also widely used by the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
More recently, the US has reportedly been considering adding high-altitude inflatables to the Pentagon’s surveillance network. Modern balloons typically hover between 24km-37km above the earth’s surface (80,000 ft and 120,000 ft).
The US Department of Defence on Thursday said the balloon is “significantly above where civilian air traffic is active”. It also said it had “very high confidence” that the balloon belongs to China.
But China expert Benjamin Ho said Beijing had more sophisticated surveillance technology at its disposal.
“They have other means to spy out American infrastructure, or whatever information they wanted to obtain. The balloon was to send a signal to the Americans, and also to see how the Americans would react,” explained Dr Ho – coordinator of the China programme at Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
It may even be the case that China wanted the US to detect the balloon.
“It’s possible that being spotted was the whole point. China might be using the balloon to demonstrate that it has a sophisticated technological capability to penetrate US airspace without risking a serious escalation. In this regard, a balloon is a pretty ideal choice,” said Arthur Holland Michel from the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
Nevertheless, the experts point out that balloons can be fitted with modern technology like spy cameras and radar sensors, and there are some advantages to using balloons for surveillance – chief of which is that it is less expensive and easier to deploy than drones or satellites.
The balloon’s slower speed also allows it to loiter over and monitor the target area for longer periods. A satellite’s movement, on the other hand, is restricted to its orbital pass.
Although China has not admitted it launched the balloon, Mr Michel says it is unlikely anyone else could be responsible.
“The [US Department of Defence] would likely not say that it is a Chinese balloon unless they have a fairly high degree of certainty that that is what it is.”
The balloon’s anticipated flight path near certain missile bases suggests it is unlikely it has drifted off course, He Yuan Ming said.
