For the eye of tv– and amateur cameras A US warplane shot down a Chinese balloon over the Atlantic Ocean, which the US government says was conducting a reconnaissance flight. Videos show how an airplane flies towards a white circle, how a projectile suddenly deviates from the plane’s course and the circle changes into a shapeless mass: a deflated balloon.
Spy adventure
This ends a relatively short espionage adventure with consequences at home and abroad: a diplomatic trip at the highest level was called off after the Americans spotted the object and Republican opponents of President Biden shouted loudly that he had let the balloon into the US. US airspace.
Biden himself told reporters on Saturday that he had already ordered the balloon — the size of “two to three school buses” the size of “two to three school buses” according to anonymously quoted officials — to be brought down on Wednesday, but that the military command thought it unwise to do so over land. The danger that the crashing remains would cause damage or casualties was considered too great. The balloon was eventually shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
Scientific mission
The Chinese explanation that it was a balloon with a scientific mission that had been set adrift by the wind was rejected by the Americans. The balloon, which the Chinese themselves said in their statement to be navigable, continued to hover over Montana, the state where one of three known sites for nuclear weapons silos is located. The other two locations are in neighboring states.
Senior officials from Defense and Foreign Affairs gave background information to journalists on Friday. The Pentagon official said the balloon could no longer collect valuable intelligence. He did not want to say from what moment defense had noticed the balloon and continued to follow. He did say that the balloon could have collected little more intelligence “than what China probably brings in from its low-Earth orbiting satellites.”
The top official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the incident had made it impossible for Minister Blinken to make his planned trip to China on Friday. The official repeatedly said the visit would go ahead “as soon as circumstances allow.”
A report from the US National Security Council described China in October as “the only rival with both the intent to disrupt the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological clout to do it.”
While some Republican politicians pointed out that similar reconnaissance flights are being conducted and discovered more often in US airspace, others have tried to draw domestic political fire out of the incident. A whole series of Republicans, including former President Trump, called for the balloon to be shot down. Representative Michael McCaul, who has chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee since January, wrote in a statement that “the Biden administration has allowed the balloon to continue its flight and that it now poses an immediate and continuing threat to national security and the threatens the privacy of every American.”
Some deputies encouraged civilians to shoot at the object. The balloon was estimated to be about 18 kilometers above the ground.