The White House said Wednesday that China operated in several countries a fleet of allegedly spy balloons similar to the one the United States shot down last week on its territory.
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“These balloons are part of a … fleet of balloons being developed for surveillance operations,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said aboard Air Force One. “In previous years Chinese balloons have been sighted in various countries on five continents,” he added.
(You can read: China rejected a call from the head of the Pentagon on the day the balloon was shot down)
These statements come days after the White House Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, defended the actions of the United States in shooting down the Chinese spy balloon that had been flying over the national territory for several days and ensured that international law was respected. .
Kirby thus responded to China after the country’s vice foreign minister, Xie Feng, accused Washington of overreacting and “seriously violating the spirit of international law” with “indiscriminate use of force.”
(Also read: US says downing of Chinese spy balloon respected international law)
Precisely, this Wednesday Kirby, in an appearance before the media at the foreign press center, assured that China has been working for several years on a “program” of balloons for espionage work that have already flown over several regions, including Latin America.
“This is a program that the Chinese have been working on for several years. They (the Chinese) have tried to improve it, they have grown it and they have increased it, all with the aim of obtaining intelligence information,” the spokesman said.
(In addition: The balloon that flies over Latin America is also Chinese: what is its objective?)
Kirby announced that the US is speaking with its allies in the world to offer them information about the scope of this espionage program and, without giving many more details, indicated that new information will be released this Wednesday in this regard.
“The United States is not the only nation that has been affected by this. And we believe it is important that our partners and allies have information about this,” he said.
The United States is not the only nation that has been affected by this. And we believe that it is important that our partners and allies have information about this.
This is one more chapter in the new tension between the United States and the Asian giant after Washington shot down last Saturday a Chinese “spy balloon” that had been flying over various areas of the country for days, such as the state of Montana (northeast), where it find one of the three existing nuclear missile silo fields on US soil.
(You can read: China is grateful that Latin American countries do not see a threat in the ‘spy balloon’)
China has admitted that the balloon belongs to it, but said it had been misplaced and is used for meteorological purposes, not espionage.
The United States also announced last Friday that it had detected another “spy balloon” over Latin America, which the Chinese government admitted, but continued to maintain that this airship does not represent “any threat.”
The countries where the aircraft has been detected are Costa Rica, Colombia and Venezuela, according to different sources.
WILLIAM MORENO HERNANDEZ
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
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