February 6, 2023
The Chinese are pissed that the US shot down that spy balloon over the weekend. Saying the US overreacted and basically said they are reserving their right to retaliate.
There’s a lot in there. This video is going to be a little longer than normal. But this stuff is important so let’s break it down.
First – there’s a basic disagreement about what the balloon was. The Pentagon says it was a surveillance balloon meant to spy on the US but the Chinese in several statements maintain it was one of their “unmanned civilian airships” used for meteorological purposes that accidentally blew into US airspace.
We’ll see exactly what it was once the military pulls it out of the Atlantic ocean and the FBI examines all the pieces.
It’s also worth noting –as I reported in this video on Friday—the US government was able to stop the balloon from actually collecting data while it was floating over some pretty sensitive areas.
Now to the retaliation part of this. We already know relations between the United States and China are super tense. After US fighter jets shot the balloon down, China’s foreign minister said China will “reserve the right to make further necessary responses.” *That* is being seen as a veiled threat of retaliation. Though it’s very unspecific.
Today the Chinese said the US side deliberately “hyped up” the matter and the use of force was “unacceptable and irresponsible.” Of course, the United States completely disagrees.
It’s no secret that the United States and China have spied on each other for years. Infant back in 2001 a crewed US spy plane flying off the coast of China was forced down after a collision with a Chinese jet. All 24 American service members onboard were held in China and interrogated for 10 days.
Last week the Pentagon said the Chinese spy balloon wasn’t an isolated incident. We’ve seen them before in US airspace under other administrations. But didn’t offer many more details until today. The commander of NORAD says our intelligence agencies learned — after the fact — of three similar Chinese spy balloons floating in US airspace undetected, for a brief time under President Trump and at least one other time under President Biden. Former president trump said he was never made aware of those balloons. The commander of NORAD said he too never detected the balloons, but there may be possible “domain awareness gaps” of the military that need to be fixed.
And speaking of these balloons – they’ve been spotted in other countries. Of course, the Pentagon confirmed, besides the one we shot down over the weekend — there’s one over Latin America as we speak. Today, the Chinese foreign ministry acknowledged, yeah it’s ours – and gave pretty much the exact same explanation for what it is and how it got there. The Pentagon said that China has a fleet of surveillance balloons and they’ve been spotted in the past over Europe and Asia.
Read the readout from today’s press conference from the Foreign Ministry of the People’s Republic of China here.
Read the statement from the NORAD Commander here.
