China has recognized this Monday that the balloon that has flown over Latin America in recent days is also its own, but has assured that the countries of that region “have expressed their understanding” about the incident. It would be an unmanned aircraft of a “civilian nature” used for “flight tests”, which would have deviated “far” from its planned route due to weather, according to Mao Ning, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said. .
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China has recognized this Monday that the balloon that has flown over Latin America in recent days is also its own, but has assured that the countries of that region “have expressed their understanding” about the incident. It would be an unmanned aircraft of a “civilian nature” used for “flight tests”, which would have deviated “far” from its planned route due to weather, according to Mao Ning, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, in a wheel routine press.
The explanation is very similar to the one that Beijing gave about the device discovered last week in flight over the United States, shot down on Saturday and whose discovery has strained relations between the two superpowers of the planet to the point of causing the suspension of the secretary’s visit to China. of US State, Antony Blinken, scheduled for this Sunday and Monday. Washington assures that the episode is not a one-time event, but that a multitude of balloons under the orders of the Chinese army have been sighted in recent years over countries on five continents.
“We have informed the relevant parties,” said the Chinese foreign spokeswoman about the second device. “It is being managed properly and will not pose any threat to any country. They have expressed their understanding,” she added.
Beijing had not until now recognized this other episode in the spy balloon crisis. The trajectory of this second aircraft was revealed last Friday by the Pentagon, and Washington assured that it also fulfilled surveillance functions, just like the one located at first over US territory. In the first case, Beijing argued that it was an aircraft used for “mainly meteorological” research; In this case, he argues that it is used for “flight tests”, without going into more detail.
Other chapters of balloons sighted at other times and places have been added to the Latin American episode: from Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own, Zheng Mingdian, director of the Central Meteorological Office, has assured that since 2020 there have been sightings of similar balloons in both Japan and Taiwan, as reported by the enclave’s Central News Agency on Monday. “This balloon has been around for a long time!” Zheng said in a Facebook comment in which he explained that two years ago, he took pictures of a similar device, according to the aforementioned agency. The meteorologist has ensured that the characteristics of altitude, materials and size of the downed balloon do not match those of those commonly used for meteorological observations.
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In February 2022, the Taiwanese military authorities confirmed that various weather balloons used by the Chinese army had flown through the skies of the island, but without posing any danger, according to the newspaper then. Taipei Times.
Other episodes in the US
The US assures that, despite Beijing’s justifications, the destroyed artifact does not have meteorological research functions, but that it is a surveillance balloon and affirms that there have been at least three similar episodes in its continental territory during the time of Donald Trump in the White House, and one more during the administration of the current president, Joe Biden, according to a senior US Defense official said in a meeting with the press held last Saturday, after the demolition, in which he spoke on condition of anonymity.
“This is not the only surveillance balloon of [China] that operates in the Western Hemisphere”, includes the official transcript of the meeting. “They are all part of a fleet of balloons [China] developed to carry out surveillance operations, which have also violated the sovereignty of other countries”, he assured. These types of activities, he added, are often carried out under the leadership of the People’s Liberation Army (the Chinese army) and in recent years balloons from China have been sighted over countries on five continents, including East Asia, Asia Southern and Europe.
“The use of surveillance balloons presents unique operational advantages, as this inflatable technology is capable of withstanding extreme weather conditions and is supposedly less expensive to deploy,” explains James Char, China Program Research Fellow at the Institute for Defense and Strategic Studies. from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Some reports, adds the analyst, also indicate that the payload of this balloon allows it to run on solar energy, so it does not need to refuel. But the degree of technological cutting edge of the aircraft “will only become clear after its payload has been recovered by US authorities.” Compared to a satellite, Char says, the use of balloons may also seem less malicious. “And, most importantly,” he concludes, “it fits with the Chinese military’s current goal of operating below the threshold of war.”
The National Defense Strategy, published by Washington in October, exposes the advanced military capabilities developed by Beijing. The report does not mention the balloons, but it does mention China’s sophisticated surveillance network, which has improved the precision of missile systems that the Asian power could use to “deter and counter” the US presence, “especially in the western Pacific region.
The volatility around the island of Taiwan, in the center of that region, is precisely one of the most volatile points of friction in relations between Washington and Beijing, and one of the problems that Blinken’s postponed visit was going to hover over.
Suspended the trip of the Secretary of State, China announced on Monday that a delegation of politicians from the Taiwanese Kuomintang party (Chinese Nationalist Party) – currently in opposition – plans to land in Beijing on Wednesday to meet with Song Tao, head of the Office of Taiwan Affairs of the People’s Republic. During the last term of this formation in Taiwan, between 2008 and 2016, relations between the island and mainland China experienced their moment of closest rapprochement.
A spokesman for the State Council (the Chinese Executive) has shown on Monday Beijing’s willingness to strengthen exchanges with the Kuomintang on the basis of the 1992 consensus – by which the existence of a single China is recognized, although with different interpretations. what this means—and opposition to Taiwan independence. The Taiwanese delegation will be led by the vice president of the formation, Andrew Hsia, former head of the Continental Affairs Council, a government agency in charge of relations between both shores. The delegation will “carry out exchanges and dialogue on the basis of equality and dignity” and “reflect Taiwan’s latest public concerns about the security of the Taiwan Strait and expectations for regional peace and stability,” the party explained.
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