Chinese Spy Balloon Above Western U.S.

A Chinese surveillance balloon has been spotted over the continental United States and scrutinized by the U.S. military for several days, prompting the Pentagon to consider shooting it down, senior U.S. officials said Thursday, a striking development in a time of rising tension between the two world powers.

The balloon is traveling at an altitude “well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground,” Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters in a hastily arranged news conference where he disclosed the situation. The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, continues to track the balloon, but officials would not specify its present whereabouts.

“Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years,” Ryder said, though he did not cite additional examples. “Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to prevent against the collection of sensitive information.”

The disclosure comes hours ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s expected departure for Beijing, where he is to hold a series of long-scheduled meetings with senior Chinese officials. The high-stakes visit, Blinken’s first to the country as the nation’s top diplomat, is aimed at stabilizing the U.S.-China relationship — a goal that could become more difficult following the espionage aircraft’s appearance in U.S. airspace.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the incident might impact the meetings, nor did the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

The incident, first reported Wednesday by NBC News, prompted a series of unusual events on Wednesday as the balloon was observed over sparsely populated Montana, officials said. The state is home to numerous U.S. nuclear missile silos.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/02/chinese-spy-balloon-pentagon/