A balloon suspected of being a Chinese spy was shot down this Saturday (4) at around 4:35 pm, Brasília time, by the US Air Force. It was detected by intelligence flying over US territory on Thursday, but the Biden administration had initially decided not to shoot down the large flying object, larger than three buses, to prevent the debris from causing damage on the ground.
Under the apparent path were bases with intercontinental and nuclear missiles in the state of Montana, but the Americans say they have taken precautions to prevent it from collecting sensitive information. The decision to shoot down the object with fighter jets came as it approached the Atlantic Ocean. The Federal Aviation Administration closed airspace along coastlines in North and South Carolina. The Coast Guard also emptied waters in the area estimated to have crashed. Government officials hope they can salvage something of what’s left of the balloon before it sinks into the sea.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed an official visit to Beijing that was scheduled for the Sunday after the spy balloon was discovered. Diplomatic relations between the two countries, which were beginning to overcome a period of greater distrust since the Trump administration and the beginning of the pandemic, wither again. “Actually, the US and China never announced any visit, the US announcing it is their thing, and we respect it,” China’s foreign minister said in a statement on Saturday morning. the news agency Reutershowever, said that the visit had been jointly planned by Joe Biden and Xi Jinping last November.
China says the balloon was just for meteorological research and accidentally got blown off course by the wind. Another balloon that the US says is a spy was found flying over Latin America – its exact location has not yet been reported. Chinese-born activist Jennifer Zeng showed documents
on social media that would prove the balloons are made by the China Zhuzhou Institute of Rubber Research and Design, “a government-owned military research institute with weapons production licenses.”
The US House of Representatives banned the Chinese app TikTok on its own cell phones, suspecting spying. TikTok tracked journalists and lied about it. Another country that accuses China of spying is the United Kingdom – the country’s security forces found a geolocation device hidden in an imported part for an official car.
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