China threatens ‘further actions’ over US downing of suspected spy balloon | World News

news7f02/05/2023

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Chinese 'spy balloon' spotted again in US airspace | US News

China has threatened “further actions” in response to the “serious overreaction” of the US in the downing of a hot air balloon suspected of spying.

White plane was shot out of the sky off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday after days of plotting, while diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing deteriorated further.

Our President Joe Biden ordered the object to be brought down, with a defense official saying it was a spy balloon China intended for use on sensitive military sites.

But Chinese officials insist it was a meteorological and scientific research device that blew up.

‘Clear overreaction’

In a statement on Sunday, Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said: “China will resolutely protect the relevant company’s legitimate rights and interests, and reserve the right to take retaliatory actions. next.”

Mr Biden’s order is a “clear overreaction” that “seriously violates international conventions”, it added.

The balloon was shot down by an F-22 fighter jet about 6 nautical miles off the coast of South Carolina, near Myrtle Beach, with ships deployed underwater to conduct the recovery operation.

Biden praises US pilot

The WE the president said he wanted the balloon to be shot down when it was first discovered in Billings, Montana, on Wednesday – near a nuclear missile silo field at Malmstrom Air Force Base.

It flew over the Aleutian Islands, off the coast alaskaand passed Canada before entering the US.

But Mr Biden said he was advised to wait until the water rose because of the risk of falling debris.

“They brought it down successfully and I want to commend our pilots for doing that,” he said Saturday.

Prior to the operation, flights were halted at three airports including Myrtle Beach International Airport due to “national security efforts”, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

What happens next?

US officials want to recover debris from the downed hot air balloon, which spans more than seven miles.

It flew between 60,000 ft and 65,000 ft.

The US Coast Guard, Navy and FBI are all involved in the recovery effort, with divers and unmanned submarines expected to scour the seabed over the next few days.

Sky’s US correspondent Mark Stone said: “The aim will be to harvest a potential goldmine of information”, with investigators possibly hoping to reconstruct the balloon’s payload and learn from It.

CHINA MAY FEEL THE PRESSURE TO RESPONSE WHEN RELATIONSHIP WITH THE US LEADING A COLD WAR REPRESENTATIVE

Make sure that shooting down the spy balloon is an escalation.

It is an escalation that the Americans certainly feel they have no choice but to make, but one from which both sides will be hard-pressed to back down.

If China’s initial reaction was relatively apologetic, speaking of “regret” that what it described as a weather balloon had “accidentally” fallen into US airspace, China’s tone is now they were much angrier.

Simply refusing is part of the Chinese playbook. Even if the Americans say they can prove from the collected debris that the balloon is spying, expect accusations that these claims are made to “smear” China.

The problem is that just as the US would feel pressured to open fire, China may feel pressure to take some form of retaliatory action, especially if it insists that this is a civilian profession.

There has been a huge diplomatic cost to obtaining so little intelligence, many experts have weighed in saying that such a balloon is unlikely to learn much more than can be gathered from the satellite.

Perhaps the purpose is to provoke or test the limits, but whatever it is, tit-for-tat acts become inevitable in a relationship that is slowly slipping into a confrontational style of War. Cold painting.

Recent suggestions by both sides that they should work to prevent the relationship from deteriorating further this morning

The dispute between the two superpowers over the balloon target comes at a delicate time for their relationship, which has been strained for years.

It made US Secretary of State Antony Blinken suddenly cancel a trip to Beijingthis may have taken both sides a lot of diplomatic effort to organize.

At the meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit last yearPresident of China Xi Jinping acknowledged that competition between nations must not lead to conflict.