Just hours after President Joe Biden promised to deal with a Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States, the military shot it down.
On Saturday (local time), as the balloon suspected of conducting surveillance on the US military made its way across the country, President Joe Biden arrived at Hancock Field air base in New York.
Chinese Spy Balloon Spotted Within US Territory
After Washington called the high-altitude surveillance balloon a clear violation of US sovereignty, the president was asked if the United States would shoot it down.
After the operation, President Joe Biden said he had given the go-ahead to shoot down the balloon as soon as that was possible without endangering American lives.
As military aircraft targeted the object over the Atlantic Ocean, three airports and the airspace off the coast of South Carolina were shut down.
An operation is currently underway to recover balloon debris, which is estimated to be roughly the size of three school buses.
Due to the balloon, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a Friday visit to China.
Military leaders considered shooting down the high-altitude surveillance balloon earlier this week, but decided against it due to the risk of falling debris, according to officials.
According to a Pentagon report, China devotes approximately $209 billion, or 1.3% of its gross domestic product, to its military. But policymakers in Washington have been especially concerned about its investments in technologies that may have military or intelligence applications.
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China Monitors US Military Facilities
China, according to US defense officials, is conducting surveillance of military training grounds and exercises in an effort to better comprehend how the United States trains its pilots and conducts complex military operations.
A military base in the United States and a base overseas have been subjected to unusual surveillance, according to the officials.
According to a US official, the classified report mentioned Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada and Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan as locations where foreign surveillance was believed to have occurred but did not state explicitly that China was responsible.
Since 2021, the Pentagon has investigated 366 initially unexplained incidents and concluded that 163 involved balloons. A few of these incidents involved advanced surveillance balloons, but none of them conducted persistent reconnaissance of US military bases, according to a US official.
However, government-identified spy balloons are not included in the tracking of the unidentified aerial phenomena, according to two US officials.
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