China expresses regret as Blinken postpones trip over what are now two ‘spy’ balloons
The balloon floated across nuclear launch sites in Montana, high above airline operating altitudes. Graphic: 3KRTV
The huge Chinese balloon now sailing across the United States has a travelling companion — and equally large, high-altitude mystery spotted in the stratosphere above Latin America.
The first balloon, which Beijing insists is nothing more sinister than a weather monitor, was spotted earlier over Montana, which is home to one of America’s three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base, defence officials said.
Fuzzy videos have dotted social media as the “spy balloon” headed southeastward over Kansas and Missouri at18,300 metres.
Later on Friday, the Pentagon acknowledged reports of the second balloon flying over Latin America.
“We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” Brigadier General Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said.
The initial Chinese balloon prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly to scrap a high-stakes Beijing trip aimed at easing US-China tensions.
The US had been tracking the initial balloon since at least Tuesday, when President Joe Biden was first briefed, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
US broadcaster ABC News earlier cited a US official as saying Mr Blinken did not want to blow the situation out of proportion by cancelling his visit but also did not want the balloon incident to dominate his meetings with Chinese officials.
“After consultations with our interagency partners as well as with Congress, we have concluded that the conditions are not right at this moment for Secretary Blinken to travel to China,” a senior State Department official told reporters.
“We have noted the PRC (People’s Republic of China) statement of regret but the presence of this balloon in our airspace is a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law, and it is unacceptable that this has occurred,” the official said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed his trip to China after the mystery balloon (inset) was detected.
“The secretary conveyed to the director of the Central Foreign Affairs Office, Wang Yi, earlier this morning, that the trip would need to be postponed. But the Secretary indicated that he would plan to travel to the PRC at the earliest opportunity when conditions allow.”
The Pentagon said it was “travelling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground”.
US military leaders considered shooting down the balloon over Montana but eventually President Joe Biden decided against it because of the safety risk from debris.
Observers are puzzled by this stance, as the balloon is floating over the least-populated sections of the US and carries only a minimal payload of what China insists are scientific instuments.
Trump calls for destruction
Republican Senator Tom Cotton had called for Mr Blinken to cancel his trip while Donald Trump, a declared presidential candidate for 2024, posted “SHOOT DOWN THE BALLOON!” on his Truth Social media platform.
Mr Biden ignored questions about the balloon when remarking on the state of the economy on Friday morning.
One US official said the balloon was assessed to have “limited additive value from an intelligence collection perspective”, although officials conceded the flight path would carry the balloon over a number of sensitive sites but did not give details.
Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana is home to 150 intercontinental ballistic missile silos.
The Billings, Montana, airport issued a ground stop as the military mobilised assets including F-22 fighter jets in case Mr Biden ordered that the balloon be shot down.
The high-altitude ‘weather balloon” floats over Billings, Montana. Photo: AAP
Billings resident Chase Doak, who filmed it on Wednesday, said at first he thought it was a star.
“But I thought that was kind of crazy because it was broad daylight and when I looked at it, it was just too big to be a star,” he told Reuters. Such balloons typically operate at 24,000-37,000 metres, well above where commercial air traffic flies.
From military spy satellites in space to advanced electronic intelligence aircraft and submarines, the United States routinely deploys an array of assets to monitor China’s military build-up, analysts and diplomats say.
China has often complained about surveillance by the United States, including its deployment of ships or planes near Chinese military exercises.
During the late Fifties and early Sixties, before the introduction of the U-2 spy plane and satellite surveillance, the US released similar balloons to drift across the Soviet Union to gather photos and other intelligence.
If the balloon is indeed a spying device, the unanswered question is why Beijing would revert to such outmoded technology.
