Balloon was for research and got lost accidentally, says China – The Morning Call

EMILY WANG FUJIYAMA, TARA COPP, LOLITA C. BALDOR (Associated Press)

BEIJING (AP) — China’s foreign ministry said on Friday that the balloons it suspects the United States is monitoring are civilian “airships” used primarily for research for meteorological purposes.

A statement said the airship had limited maneuverability due to the wind and “deviated significantly from its planned course.”

China said it regretted that the airship unintentionally entered US airspace.

The Department of Defense has decided not to shoot down balloons that may be flying over sensitive locations due to concerns about harming people on the ground.

The news comes as Secretary of State Anthony Brinken is expected to visit Beijing for the first time this weekend. The visit had not been officially announced, and it was not immediately clear whether the discovery of the balloon would affect his travel plans.

This is breaking news. Here’s AP’s previous story:

BEIJING (AP) — The United States is tracking suspected Chinese surveillance balloons spotted in U.S. airspace, and China said on Friday it would investigate those reports.

The Department of Defense has decided not to shoot down balloons that may be flying over sensitive locations due to concerns about harming people on the ground.

The news comes as Secretary of State Anthony Brinken is expected to visit Beijing for the first time this weekend. The visit had not been officially announced, and it was not immediately clear whether the discovery of the balloon would affect his travel plans.

Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said she did not have information about the trip. I urged him to remain calm until this became clear.

Blinken visited China as the highest-ranking member of the Joe Biden administration and saw a sharp deterioration in relations between the two countries amid concerns over trade disputes and Beijing’s increasingly aggressive stance on Taiwan and the South China Sea. I have a duty to mitigate.

A senior Pentagon official told Pentagon reporters on Thursday that the United States said the object recently spotted over the United States was a Chinese high-altitude balloon that was flying over a classified site to gather information. said he was “very confident” of One of the locations where the balloon was found is in Montana, where Malmstrom Air Force Base has his three nuclear missiles in the United States, his silo his one in his field. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.

A defense official said the US assessed the balloons to be of “limited” value in providing information that other technologies, such as spy satellites, could not provide.

It wasn’t clear what would happen if the balloon wasn’t lowered.

Mao Zedong said China was trying to understand the situation, hoping that “both sides can deal with this issue calmly and cautiously.”

“China is a responsible country and always strictly abides by international law, and China has no intention of encroaching on the territories and airspace of sovereign states,” she said.

The day before, Pentagon press secretary Brig. General Patrick Ryder said similar ballooning activity has been seen for the past few years and the government is taking steps to ensure sensitive information is not stolen.

He said the balloons were flying well above the altitude at which commercial aircraft fly and posed no threat to people on the ground.

Biden was briefed and asked to present his options to the military, according to senior government officials who are not even authorized to discuss classified information publicly. A senior defense official said the US prepared fighter jets, including F-22s, to shoot down the balloons if ordered to do so.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley advised against taking “kinetic action” because of the risk to the safety of people on the ground. Biden accepted that recommendation.

The balloon was flying over a sparsely populated area of ​​Montana, but its size created debris large enough to endanger people.

Defense officials did not specify the balloon’s size, but said commercial pilots could spot it from the cockpit.

The surveillance balloon was first reported by NBC News.

The Billings Gazette captured a picture of a large white balloon hovering over the area. According to Gazette photographer Larry Meyer, the balloon was drifting in and out of clouds, with what appeared to be a solar array hanging from the bottom.

The advent of balloons fuels national security concerns among U.S. lawmakers about China’s influence in the United States, from the proliferation of the wildly popular smartphone app TikTok to the purchase of U.S. farmland.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted: “China’s brazen disregard for US sovereignty is a destabilizing act that must be addressed.

Tensions with China are particularly high on many issues, from Taiwan and the South China Sea, to human rights issues in western China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, to the crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong. In particular, China’s tacit support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s refusal to curb the expansion of North Korea’s ballistic missile program, and the ongoing disputes over trade and technology. is included in that list.

On Tuesday, Taiwan scrambled its fighter jets, put its navy on alert and activated its missile systems. It was to respond to a nearby operation by China’s 34 military aircraft and nine warships. This is part of Beijing’s strategy to disrupt and intimidate democracy on the autonomous islands.

Twenty of them crossed the Central Line of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial buffer zone between the two countries separated by the 1949 civil war.

Beijing is also stepping up preparations for a potential blockade or military action against Taiwan, raising concerns among military leaders, diplomats and elected officials of Taiwan’s key ally, the United States.

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Kopp and Bardot reported from Washington. AP News Assistant Caroline Cheng in Beijing, Writers Matthew Lee, Ahmer Madani, and Zeke Miller from Washington, DC, and Matthew Brown from Billings, Montana contributed to this report.