|
Post by Admin on Feb 7, 2023 17:56:32 GMT
The US Navy released new images of the recovery of the Chinese balloon that was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean. #CNN #News
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Feb 8, 2023 3:41:12 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Feb 8, 2023 21:16:07 GMT
Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder: "We are aware that there have been four previous balloons that have gone over U.S. territory. This is what we assess is part of a larger Chinese surveillance balloon program." Full video here: www.c-span.org/video/?525925-...
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Feb 8, 2023 22:09:39 GMT
Retired Senior Colonel Zhou Bo told DW that the errant Chinese balloon was an accident, and that Washington should stop over-reacting to what was an honest mistake. The balloon which Washington said was likely gathering intelligence, has been described by Beijing as collecting “weather” data. It drifted over US airspace last week before being shot down by a US Air Force F-22. Zhou said US-China relations had too many important issues to address that shouldn’t be “overshadowed by a symbolic balloon.”
Zhou added that he was worried by the climate of “extreme competition” between the US and China, saying it could lead to conflict, especially over Taiwan and disputes over Chinese activities in the South China Sea. The retired People’s Liberation Army officer told DW’s Tim Sebastian that Beijing was remaining impartial in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“If China took Russia’s side we are probably already in the Third World War.”
Zhou said Vladimir Putin was unlikely to emerge as a victor from the war, but Russia was too big and powerful to lose.
Speaking from Beijing, Zhou is a senior fellow of the Center for International Security and Strategy (CISS) at Tsinghua University.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Feb 9, 2023 7:30:53 GMT
China has a “fleet” of surveillance balloons of different shapes and sizes, which it has deployed over five continents, US officials have claimed.
The allegations on Wednesday came as salvage work continued off the South Carolina coast for the debris from a high-altitude Chinese balloon a US jet fighter downed on Saturday after it had crossed the whole of the continental US.
“We’re not alone in this,” said the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken. “We’ve already shared information with dozens of countries around the world both from Washington and through our embassies. We’re doing so because the United States was not the only target of this broader programme which has violated the sovereignty of countries across five continents.”
On Thursday, Japan said cases of suspected balloons flying over Japan had been confirmed, including in the waters off the south-western region of Kyushu in 2022. Tokyo was exchanging data with the US, said government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno.
“We will continue to monitor the situation with utmost interest and gather information,” he said.
The Pentagon spokesperson, brigadier general Patrick Ryder, said the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service were working to catalogue the wreckage of the downed balloon and transfer it to the mainland for further examination. The Pentagon has published photographs of sailors on small navy boats gathering parts of the balloon from the surface, but most of the equipment payload – said to be the size of a regional passenger jet – has sunk to the sea bed.
|
|