🚨DEVELOPING STORY: Chinese spy balloon caught over US nuclear facilities What does this mean? Why didn't the US shoot it down? What's next? (a live thread)

The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now, as per the Pentagon.

The balloon is considered to be of Chinese origin and is described as the size of three buses and includes a technology bay.

The U.S. State Department already summoned a Chinese diplomat to deliver a “very clear and stark message” about a spy balloon over the U.S.

A Pentagon spokesperson said similar surveillance activity has been seen in the past few years, adding the US had taken steps to ensure the balloon did not collect sensitive information.

Defense officials said the balloon has been watched for a couple days since it entered US airspace, flying at high altitude.

It has been monitored by several methods including manned aircraft, and has most recently been tracked crossing over Montana, where the US has some of its silo-based nuclear missiles

The object first flew over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and through Canada before appearing over the city of Billings, Montana.

Some Montana residents claimed that they were able to spot the object with bare eyes, the object appeared stationary, but some amateur high-definition videos suggested it was slowly moving.

Blake Herzinger, American Enterprise Institute defense policy expert, said despite their slow speeds, balloons aren’t always easy to spot: “They’re very low signature and low-to-zero emission, so hard to pick up with traditional situational awareness or surveillance technology,”

According to Layton, the suspected Chinese balloon is likely collecting information on US communication systems and radars. Retired US Air Force Col. Cedric Leighton echoed these thoughts on CNN.

Intelligence data collected by the balloon could be relayed in real time via a satellite link back to China, Layton said. Montana is also home to one of the nation’s three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base.

Chinese experts raised questions re the origin of the balloon. Liu Ming, head of science & tech intelligence company MizarVision, said that images released by US officials appeared to show a balloon that was incapable of traveling such long distances or with such precision (NBC)

Military expert Zhang Xuefeng claims that the US would not necessarily be able to identify the balloon’s country of origin while it was still in the sky, and that it was pointless for China to use balloons to spy on the US when it has a much more effective satellite network.

Craig Singleton, a China expert of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that such balloons had been widely used by the United States and Soviet Union during the Cold War and are a low-cost intelligence gathering method. (Reuters)

This type of event is not unprecedented, and both countries have been mutually ‘spying’ on each other for years. The difference in this particular incident is the balloon is staying over the U.S. longer than usual.

One past incident is the occurred on April 1, 2001 at the Hainan Island, when a US Navy EP-3E ARIES II signals intelligence aircraft and a Chinese Navy (PLAN) J-8II interceptor fighter jet collided in mid-air, resulting in an international dispute between the US and China.

The collision caused a Chinese pilot to go missing (later presumed dead); the EP-3 was forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan without approved permission from the Chinese authorities.

The 24 crew members were detained and interrogated by Chinese authorities until a statement was delivered by the United States government regarding the incident.

Over the past years, China has expanded its satellite arsenal from 250 to 500. And experts have been saying that it’s unlikely that this surveillance balloon will be able to glean any information that satellites do not already know about.”

In 2019, the US military used up to 25 experimental solar-powered high-altitude balloons to conduct wide-area surveillance tests across six midwestern states.

The balloons were equipped with hi-tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather.

Some Chinese experts in their commentary on state media doubted Beijing was floating a surveillance balloon.

Currently we assess that this balloon has limited additive value from an intelligence collection perspective over and above what China can do through other means,” senior defense official said.

The official further said the balloon does not pose a threat to civil aviation because of its altitude.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning: “China is a responsible country and has always strictly abided by international laws, and China has no intention to violate the territory and airspace of any sovereign countries.”

Tensions with China are particularly high on numerous issues, ranging from Taiwan and the South China Sea to human rights in China’s western Xinjiang region.

The incident comes just ahead of a visit to China by Antony Blinken, expected this weekend, when it is believed the US secretary of state will meet Xi Jinping, becoming the highest ranking US official to visit since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

We will continue to update the story live on this thread, and will start a space if the matter escalates. You can set a reminder below in case we do:

China foreign ministry: "The airship from China is for meteorological and other scientific research. Airship came from China is of a civilian nature. China regrets the airship strays into the U.S."

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