According to U.S. authorities, a Chinese spy balloon has been hovering over the country for a few days. This would be a reckless gesture by China, only days before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to visit Beijing. At this point, it’s unclear how the spy balloon’s revelation would alter these plans.
Although fighter jets were prepared, military officials cautioned President Joe Biden against shooting the balloon out of the sky out of concern that flying debris may endanger public safety. This advice was accepted by Biden, and when the balloon entered American airspace, the US took “custody” of it and dispatched military aircraft to examine it.
The Second Chinese Spy balloon:
‘Shoot Down the Balloon’ was one of the top trends on Twitter as a second Chinese spy balloon was spotted in the US – this time over Latin America. The first one was over Montana. Several social media users questioned if these alleged surveillance tools are a part of a ‘dry run’ for an EMP attack.
“We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said in a statement to CNN.
“You shoot down the balloon and launch bombers from Guam that’s what you do when the homeland is threatened,” a Twitter user said.
“Biden should shoot down the Chinese spy balloon immediately,” Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted.
Former US President Donald Trump had asked the Joe Biden administration to shoot down the balloon in a Truth Social post.
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An inquiry for comment from Reuters about the spy balloon was not answered by the Chinese foreign ministry. However, according to American officials, they discussed the issue diplomatically with their Chinese equivalents. We have communicated to them the seriousness with which we take this issue,” a U.S. official said.
