On Monday, the United States and China became embroiled in heightened tensions after they exchanged heated accusations regarding spying programs following the U.S. takedown of a Chinese spy balloon and three unidentifiable flying objects over North America a week later.
U.S. officials reported that they had been closely monitoring the Chinese military’s balloon surveillance program, which had launched from Hainan Island in southern China at the end of January. As the balloon traveled over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, Canada, and Montana, military leaders alerted President Biden that it was highly likely the same type of aerial vehicle previously detected twice by Hawaii, as well as seen over Texas and Florida. On February 4th, the balloon was shot down by a U.S. fighter jet off the coast of South Carolina, and authorities confirmed that “important debris,” including “priority sensor and electronics pieces,” were retrieved from the wreckage.
The crisis has exacerbated diplomatic tensions between the two nations. Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, accused the United States of running the “world’s biggest spy network,” claiming that it had undertaken extensive global surveillance that had compromised “the privacy of citizens across the world” by capturing electronic communications.
During the exchange, Mr. Wang made further allegations that the United States had unlawfully sent 10 balloons into Chinese airspace since last year. The White House swiftly and emphatically denied the accusation, with National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson releasing a statement that refuted the claim, stating that “any assertion that the U.S. government operates surveillance balloons over the People’s Republic of China is untrue.”
Ms. Watson cited China’s spy balloon program and remarked that to date, China had failed to provide plausible explanations for its trespassing into American and others’ airspace.
The hostile exchange underscores how quickly espionage programs have revived as a source of tension between the two nations, whose relationship has been on a downward spiral. Despite President Biden and his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, attempting to stabilize the ties since a meeting in Bali, Indonesia, in November, the uproar caused by the spy balloon has undermined these efforts.
The United States does conduct extensive spying operations against China. The 2001 collision of an American electronic spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet, which resulted in the presumed death of a Chinese pilot, revealed the extent of the U.S.’s efforts to gather electronic communications, even though the plane was well off China’s coast. The National Security Agency has infiltrated the networks of China’s primary telecommunications firm, Huawei, and traced Chinese soldiers as they transported nuclear arms.
China has a long history of reciprocating by stealing from the United States, including the theft of designs for the F-35 stealth fighter and security clearance records of 22 million American citizens from the Office of Personnel Management’s databases.
Despite China’s history of theft, the United States’ message in the past week has been that direct intrusions of American and allied airspace are different. John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, stated on Monday that he was not aware of any similar U.S. program in Chinese airspace.
If any of the three flying objects destroyed in North America from Friday to Sunday are confirmed to be of Chinese origin, it would be a significant provocation following the spy balloon incident. U.S. officials have emphasized that they are not prematurely attributing the objects to Chinese surveillance devices.
On Monday, Mr. Biden instructed top national security officials to investigate how the United States monitors its airspace and whether procedures need to be revised, according to Mr. Kirby.
The United States and China have traded accusations over spying programs, leading to increased tensions between the two nations. In late January, the US began tracking a Chinese spy balloon that lifted off from Hainan Island in southern China. The balloon was shot down on February 4th after drifting over North America. The recovery of significant debris from the craft, which included priority sensor and electronic pieces, has intensified the diplomatic crisis.
The US government denies any claim of operating surveillance balloons over China’s airspace. The recent direct physical intrusions of American and allied airspace have added to the tension between the two nations. The US military has adjusted its radar filters, and pilots for the North American Aerospace Defense Command would need revised guidance about when to shoot down objects.
US agencies are currently conducting investigations into the origins of three mysterious objects that were shot down by US fighter jets between Friday and Sunday on orders from President Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Although debris recovery efforts are underway in Alaska, the Yukon Territory in Canada, and the Canadian side of Lake Huron, the objects did not pose any danger to people on the ground, as they had no people inside, maneuvering or propulsion capabilities, and were not sending out any communications signals.
They flew at altitudes ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 feet, which is much lower than the Chinese spy balloon. Moreover, these objects posed a potential risk to civilian air traffic, as they appeared to be pushed by winds from west to east.
According to US officials, the object that was shot down over Lake Huron had an octagonal structure with strings hanging off it but no visible payload. However, none of the recent three objects has been called a “balloon” by the officials, who are taking the matter seriously.
Last week, the Biden administration accused China of violating the sovereignty of more than 40 nations on five continents by sending surveillance balloons. In fall 2022, a suspected high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon flew near sensitive U.S. military installations in the Middle East, but U.S. officials did not view it as a threat as it remained far offshore.
According to a senior U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the balloon originated in or near China and traveled westward toward the Middle East, against the direction of prevailing winds and the opposite of the route taken by the spy balloon that was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean. This suggests that the machine had its own source of propulsion.
The balloon was tracked by military officials in Asia until it moved into Middle Eastern air space, where their counterparts took over monitoring duties, said the senior U.S. official. Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the top U.S. Air Force commander in the Middle East, appeared to refer to the incident in a meeting with reporters on Monday, noting an encounter involving a high-altitude balloon in his region last fall. He did not provide further details due to the sensitive nature of the incident but stated that it never reached the level of high concern, and they only monitored it.
China has denied that the spy balloons were for spying and claimed they were civilian machines used for weather research or test flight purposes.
On Monday, Mr. Wang, the foreign ministry spokesman, stated that American balloons frequently enter the airspace of other nations illegally, and U.S. high-altitude balloons had illegally flown over China’s airspace over ten times since last year. China has a broad definition of its borders, and it is unclear to what airspace Mr. Wang was referring, as China claims disputed territories around Taiwan, the South China Sea, the East China Sea, and the Himalayas.
The majority of America’s critical intelligence originates from its network of sophisticated spy satellites, a robust effort to intercept electronic communications, and information from human sources. Although China’s counterintelligence decimated the CIA’s Chinese spy network more than a decade ago, the United States has been working to rebuild it.
The United States generally avoids sending reconnaissance devices into another country’s sovereign airspace, particularly countries like China with advanced air defense capabilities. Such a move risks disclosing crucial capabilities since craft that can be easily intercepted are sent.
The collection of aerial intelligence is a minor aspect of U.S. intelligence gathering, and, in general, reconnaissance planes from the U.S. fly in international airspace just outside other countries’ territorial waters.
Former officials have said that while the U.S. has considered developing high-altitude surveillance craft for counterterrorism or counternarcotics missions, such methods would be ineffective for spying on countries like Russia or China, as they would rapidly detect and destroy them.
The United States and China have a history of disputes over espionage, including a 2014 incident in which a Chinese fighter jet came within 30 feet of a U.S. Navy surveillance plane in international airspace near China. At the time, the encounter was described by a Pentagon spokesman as “very, very close, very dangerous.” The Chinese Ministry of National Defense responded by accusing the U.S. of engaging in “large-scale, high-frequency close-proximity surveillance” that threatened Chinese-U.S. maritime and aviation safety.
In 1974, when China shot down a U.S. spy balloon, both nations kept the incident quiet as they were rebuilding diplomatic relations after a long break. However, with the current friction between the two nations, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has not yet rescheduled his trip to Beijing. While Blinken and Wang Yi are both expected to attend the Munich Security Conference, there are no meetings currently scheduled between them.
In 1974, China took down a U.S. spy balloon within its borders, but the incident was handled quietly as the two countries were rebuilding diplomatic relations after a 23-year break. The Chinese government labeled the event as a military secret and kept it hidden, as reported by a magazine managed by the party school of the central committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
However, current relations between the two nations have become increasingly strained, and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has not yet rescheduled a trip to Beijing that he canceled during the spy balloon uproar. While Blinken and China’s top foreign policy official, Wang Yi, are expected to attend the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany, which starts on Friday, there is currently no meeting scheduled between the two officials, according to a State Department spokesman, Ned Price.