US shoots down Chinese spy balloon. Video / DW News & Devon Pace/@elitedevon via Spectee
US President Joe Biden says the US is developing “sharper rules” to track, monitor and potentially shoot down unknown aerial objects, following three weeks of high-stakes drama sparked by the discovery of a suspected Chinese spy balloon transiting much of the country.
The President has directed national security adviser JakeSullivan to lead an “interagency team” to review US procedures after the US shot down the Chinese balloon, as well as three other objects that Biden said the US now believes are most likely “benign” objects that were launched by private companies or research institutions.
Biden said he hoped the new rules would help “distinguish between those that are likely to pose safety and security risks that necessitate action and those that do not.”
“Make no mistake, if any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people I will take it down,” he added.
The downing of the Chinese surveillance craft was the first known peacetime shootdown of an unauthorised object in US airspace — a feat repeated three times a week later.
Biden sharply criticised China’s surveillance programme, saying the “violation of our sovereignty is unacceptable”, but said he looks to maintain open lines of communication with Beijing. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken postponed his first planned trip to China as the balloon was flying over the US, and a new meeting with his Chinese counterpart has yet to be scheduled.
“I expect to be speaking with President Xi and I hope we can get to the bottom of this,” Biden said, adding, “But I make no apologies for taking down that balloon.”
Biden said the rules would remain classified so as not to “give a roadmap to our enemies to try to evade our defences.”
The Chinese balloon has escalated tensions between the US and China. Blinken will travel to the Munich Security Conference and there is speculation he might use the opportunity to meet top Chinese foreign policy official Wang Yi, who will also be attending the conference.
Biden had remained largely silent on the objects downed Friday (Saturday NZ time) off the coast of Alaska, Saturday (Sunday NZ) over Canada and Sunday (Monday NZ) over Lake Huron.
On Monday (Tuesday NZ), the White House announced earnestly there was no indication of “aliens or extraterrestrial activity”.
US officials said they were still working to locate the wreckage from the objects, but that they expected all three to be unrelated to surveillance efforts.
“The intelligence community is considering as a leading explanation that these could just be balloons tied to some commercial or benign purpose,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby. No country or private company has come forward to claim any of the objects, Kirby said. They do not appear to have been operated by the US government.
President Joe Biden says the US is developing new rules around unknown aerial objects. Photo / AP
Still unaddressed are questions about the original balloon, including what spying capabilities it had and whether it was transmitting signals as it flew over sensitive military sites in the United States. It was believed by American intelligence to have initially been on a track toward the US territory of Guam, according to a US official.
The US tracked it for several days after it left China, said the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence. It appears to have been blown off its initial trajectory and ultimately flew over the continental US, the official said.
Balloons and other unidentified objects have been previously spotted over Guam, a strategic hub for the US Navy and Air Force in the western Pacific.
It’s unclear how much control China retained over the balloon once it veered from its original trajectory. A second US official said the balloon could have been externally manoeuvred or directed to loiter over a specific target, but it’s unclear whether Chinese forces did so.
After the balloon was shot down, the White House revealed that such balloons had traversed US territory at least three times during President Donald Trump’s administration unknown to Trump or his aides — and that others have flown over dozens of nations across five continents. Kirby emphasised that they were only detected by the Biden administration.
