“Closely observing the balloon in flight has allowed us to better understand this Chinese program and further confirmed its mission was surveillance,” said the official, who discussed intelligence matters on the condition of anonymity.
The official said Chinese surveillance balloons had briefly flown over the continental United States once before during the Biden administration and at least three times while Donald Trump was president, which was discovered only after he left office.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning confirmed that a balloon spotted over Latin America also belonged to China, saying it was on a flight test for civilian purposes, had limited steering capability and had unintentionally entered the airspace of countries in the region.
“China is a responsible country and we always act in accordance with international law,” she said at a regular news briefing on Monday.
Mao did not say which Chinese company or entity owned the balloon that was downed in the U.S., but she said the government would “firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of relevant Chinese companies.”
For China, the U.S. reaction to the balloon suggests that not much would have come from Blinken’s visit anyway, Benjamin Ho, assistant professor in the China program at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told NBC News.
“If the Americans played down this issue, then the Chinese could take it as a sign that the Americans were really sincere about meeting them and not wanting this escalation of poor relations to continue,” he said. “But in this case that didn’t happen, so in other words we are back to square one.”
Jude Blanchette, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that while the balloon incident was a major misstep by Beijing, postponing Blinken’s trip was “a bit of a knee-jerk reaction” that could demonstrate the White House’s concern with domestic…
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