Chinese spy balloon

The US is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted flying over sensitive sites in recent days. Defence officials said they ...

It will be the first visit to the country by a Biden administration cabinet secretary. US media have reported another US official comparing it to the size of three buses. It confused social media users in Montana, with some posting images of a pale round object high in the sky. Top military leaders, including Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, met on Wednesday to assess the threat. Canada said on Friday that it was monitoring "a potential second incident" involving a surveillance balloon, but did not say which country could be behind it. It was most recently seen above the western state of Montana.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China has no intention of violating the territory and airspace of any sovereign country.

has “engaged” Chinese officials through multiple channels and communicated the seriousness of the matter. “The Indo-Pacific is the fastest growing economic region of the world. Ryder said NORAD continues to monitor the balloon’s course, which was over the centre of the continental United States. China’s foreign ministry said on Friday that the balloon was for civilian meteorological and other scientific purposes, and that it regrets that the airship strayed into U.S. State Department officials are “confident this is a Chinese surveillance balloon” and have taken steps to protect against the collection of sensitive U.S. A senior defence official told Pentagon reporters Thursday that the U.S. The balloon could be seen drifting in and out of clouds and had what appeared to be a solar array hanging from the bottom, said Gazette photographer Larry Mayer. It added that it will continue to maintain communications with the United States to properly handle the unexpected situation. is focused on “is getting the surveillance asset out of our airspace.” Canadian officials have yet to publicly confirm when or where the balloon entered Canadian airspace. On Friday, he confirmed he had informed his Chinese counterpart that he was postponing the trip “in light of China’s unacceptable action.” He added the Pentagon and U.S.

The U.S. is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted over its airspace for a couple of days, but the Pentagon decided not to ...

U.S. The U.S. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the U.S. The balloon could be seen drifting in and out of clouds and had what appeared to be a solar array hanging from the bottom, said Gazette photographer Larry Mayer. has assessed that the balloon has "limited" value in terms of providing China with intelligence it couldn't already collect by other means, such as through spy satellites. All air traffic at Billings-Logan International Airport in Billings, Mont., was halted from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. did get fighter jets, including F-22s, ready to shoot down the balloon if ordered to by the White House. A senior defence official told reporters at the Pentagon that the U.S. has "engaged" Chinese officials through multiple channels and communicated the seriousness of the matter. It did not say where the balloon was spotted. President Joe Biden was briefed and asked the military to present options. "As for the balloon, as I've mentioned just now, we are looking into and verifying the situation and hope that both sides can handle this together calmly and carefully."

China urged calm Friday and said that it was looking into reports of a high-altitude surveillance balloon suspected of belonging to Beijing hovering over ...

[Canada](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/canada-us-increasing-immigration-labor-shortage-rcna64691) on Thursday said it was monitoring a "potential second incident" relating to a balloon. defense official said Thursday the balloon was still over the United States but declined to say where. [brief statement](https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/news/2023/02/statement-on-high-altitude-surveillance-balloon.html) late Thursday, the Canadian Department of National Defense said a high-altitude surveillance balloon had been detected and was being “actively tracked” by the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a U.S.-Canadian military organization. [Blinken was due to visit China](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/blinken-beijing-trip-suspected-chinese-spy-balloon-us-rcna68959), the highest-ranking Biden administration official to do so. Pat Ryder, told journalists that the balloon was flying at an altitude of 60,000 feet — above civilian and military aviation — and moving eastwards across the continental U.S. They said the balloon did not pose a threat to civil aviation and was of limited use in collecting intelligence, though Montana is home to one of America’s three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base. [major issues beset the upcoming trip](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/blinken-beijing-trip-suspected-chinese-spy-balloon-us-rcna68959). "The airship is from China. The U.S. Later on Friday, the Pentagon’s spokesperson, Brig. to "properly handle this unexpected situation." military was monitoring the suspected Chinese spy balloon, which had flown over the Aleutian Islands and through Canada before moving into U.S.

A senior American defense official told Pentagon reporters Thursday that the U.S. has “very high confidence” that the object spotted over U.S. airspace in ...

It could be seen drifting in and out of clouds and had what appeared to be a solar array hanging from the bottom, said Gazette photographer Larry Mayer. has assessed that the balloon has “limited” value in terms of providing intelligence that couldn’t be obtained by other technologies, such as spy satellites. Not least on that list of irritants are China’s tacit support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its refusal to rein in North Korea’s expanding ballistic missile program and ongoing disputes over trade and technology. On Thursday, a senior American defense official told Pentagon reporters that the U.S. prepared fighter jets, including F-22s, to shoot down the balloon if ordered. The ministry said the airship has limited “self-steering" capabilities and “deviated far from its planned course” because of winds. airspace due to force majeure,” the statement said, citing a legal term used to refer to events beyond one's control. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. The news came as U.S. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Friday she had no information on the trip. The discovery further strained already tense relations between Beijing and Washington. suspicion it was spying.

The US is tracking a suspected Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon over the continental United States, a senior defense official said on Thursday.

Mark Milley, not to shoot it down due to the risk to safety of people on the ground. Mark Milley, “not to take kinetic action due to the risk to safety and security of people on the ground from the possible debris field,” the official said. We have communicated to [Chinese officials] the seriousness with which we take this issue. “So we wanted to make sure we were coordinating with civil authorities to empty out the airspace around that potential area.” The balloon is assessed to have “limited additive value” from an intelligence collection perspective, the official added. “We are confident that this high-altitude surveillance balloon belongs to the [People’s Republic of China],” the senior defense official said.

The revelation comes days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Beijing, where he is expected to meet with President Xi Jinping.

At the same time, he is a proponent of President Biden’s goal of keeping open channels of communication with China to avoid a deterioration of the relationship. [permissive stance](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/09/15/world/ukraine-russia-war) toward the Russian invasion of Ukraine has also strained relations. On Thursday, the Defense Department said the U.S. The Biden administration has aggressively moved to check China’s ability to further its technological and military ambitions, drawing fiery rebukes from Beijing. The Pentagon assessed that the spy balloon “did not provide anything that ‘other’ Chinese collections did not already provide them,” Michael P. Still, a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the balloon did not pose a military or physical threat and added that it had limited value in collecting intelligence. The revelation comes as tensions between Beijing and Washington have been on the rise. Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters that the balloon was traveling “well above commercial air traffic,” adding that “once the balloon was detected, the U.S. Blinken’s Beijing visit — the first by an American secretary of state in six years — during which he is expected to meet with President Xi Jinping. Do the sources know the information? Like American spy satellites, the Chinese satellites can take pictures and monitor weapons launches, officials said. The decision to publicize the discovery appears to put China on notice ahead of Mr.