Chinese balloon

The U.S. Defense Department said Friday another Chinese surveillance balloon is sailing over Latin America, two days after a similar high-altitude balloon ...

Blinken said he told China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in a phone call Friday that the presence of the surveillance balloon in U.S. Following confirmation that the balloon belonged to China, U.S. Experts say both the U.S. airspace and would continue communicating with the United States on the matter. In an interview with VOA’s Mandarin Service, Timothy Heath of the Rand Corp. politicians and media of taking advantage of the situation to discredit China. The spokesperson said it was civilian airship used mainly for meteorological research and “had deviated from its planned course.” On Saturday, China's foreign ministry said the craft was a force majeure, citing a legal term to refer to events beyond one’s control. defense officials first discovered the balloon Wednesday over the northwestern state of Montana, which houses one of the three U.S. He said it does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground at this time. The U.S. Air traffic out of the Billings, Montana, airport briefly came to a halt Wednesday as the U.S.

In Montana — home to Malmstrom Air Force base and dozens of nuclear missile silos — people doubted Beijing's claim that it was a weather balloon gone off course ...

Steve Daines visited China, hosted the Chinese ambassador on a visit to a Montana ranch and helped secure a deal to export more beef to China. When the Pentagon said the balloon had since drifted over the central U.S., Zinke raised the possibility China had more than one balloon over the U.S.. The service confirmed it was not a National Weather Service balloon. The heavy anti-China sentiment marks a shift from a just a few years ago, when Montana U.S. Is it a spy balloon, is it a weather balloon? Ryan Zinke sent a poll to constituents early Friday saying the balloon was still over the state and asking if should be shot down. Jon Tester, who chairs the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said he would hold a hearing to get answers from the Biden administration. In Montana — home to Malmstrom Air Force base and dozens of nuclear missile silos — people doubted Beijing's claim that it was a weather balloon gone off course. Local National Weather Service offices were asked on Twitter whether the balloon was theirs. [online tool](https://www.ready.noaa.gov/READY_balloon.php) was eagerly shared on Facebook, showing the balloon's trajectory sweep into the U.S. When Todd Hewett's 10-year-old son saw it over Billings he thought it was a comet. And online storm chasers, more accustomed to tracking raging systems and funnel clouds, offered updates on the balloon’s path through cloudless skies.

As the US and its Canadian partners continue to monitor a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon floating above the northern United States, one question ...

[postponed](http://www.cnn.com/2023/02/03/politics/china-us-balloon-intl/index.html) his upcoming trip to China in response to the balloon sighting, according to two US officials. “We have communicated to (Chinese officials) the seriousness with which we take this issue. The Biden administration acted “immediately” to protect against the collection of sensitive intelligence, an official said on Thursday. Our assessment is it does not. A US official added on Friday to CNN: “This isn’t like ‘Top Gun’ where it just explodes and doesn’t go anywhere. Our best assessment right now is that it does not.

Later Friday, the Pentagon acknowledged reports of a second balloon flying over Latin America. “We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” Brig.

In a statement that approached an apology, the Chinese foreign ministry said the balloon was a civilian airship used mainly for meteorological research. She said that “the presence of this balloon in our airspace … and others over areas it considers to be its territory and once forced down an American spy plane and held its crew captive on Hainan Island, was relatively conciliatory in its response to the U.S. Still, weather experts said China’s claim that the balloon had gone off course was not unfeasible. airspace due to force majeure,” the statement said, citing a legal term used to refer to events beyond one’s control. “The idea that Communist China has a spy balloon headed towards Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri right now — the home of the Stealth Bomber — is absolutely unbelievable,” said Sen. Blinken, who had been due to depart Washington for Beijing late Friday, said he had told senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in a phone call that sending the balloon over the U.S. Blinken’s trip cancellation came despite China’s claim that the balloon was merely a weather research “airship” that had blown off course. The development dealt a new blow to already strained U.S.-Chinese relations that have been in a downward spiral for years over numerous issues. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. The U.S. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement, declining to offer further information such as where it was spotted.