18.02.2023
The U.S. military announced on Friday that the recovery of the downed Chinese balloon off the Atlantic coast has ended and that the debris will be investigated for counterintelligence. The search for other downed objects in Alaska and Lake Huron, which are likely to be owned by private companies or used for entertainment or weather tracking, will also be suspended.
(Voice of Deutsche Welle Chinese Network) The Pentagon issued a statement on Friday (February 17) stating that the military has ended the salvage work on the wreckage of the Chinese balloon that was shot down on the Atlantic coast on February 4. It also announced the end of the search for other flying objects shot down off the coast of Alaska and over Lake Huron after days of fruitless searches.
The U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) said the recovery effort ended after successfully locating and recovering debris from the balloon off the Atlantic coast of South Carolina. “The final pieces are being transferred to an FBI laboratory in Virginia for a counterintelligence investigation, U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard vessels have left the salvage site, and air and maritime security alerts have been lifted,” the statement said. “
Abandon the search for other downed objects
Northern Command also said in a statement later in the day that it would end the search for two other downed objects. Northern Command noted that the U.S. military, federal agencies, and Canadian partners systematically searched each area using a variety of methods, but no debris was found. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin therefore approved the command’s recommendation to cancel the search.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also told the media at a White House news briefing on Friday that “extremely severe winter weather” in northern Alaska made the search extremely difficult. At this stage, the United States still has no grasp of what these objects are, but there is no indication that they are related to China’s spy balloon program.
Only the first flying object is suspected of being a “spy balloon”
Intelligence agencies currently assess that the objects that were later shot down were probably owned by private companies, or were used for entertainment, or were balloons used by research institutions to study the weather or conduct other surveys. In contrast, the first balloon shot down on Feb. 4 was about the size of three buses and had the elements of a “spy balloon” with functions for gathering signals intelligence and taking pictures, U.S. officials said.However, inSo far, Chinese officials have only stated several times that “the Chinese civilian unmanned airship strayed into the U.S. airspace by accident completely due to force majeure. The facts are clear and cannot be distorted or smeared.”。
Biden looks forward to talking with Xi Jinping
U.S. President Biden delivered a speech on this Thursday (February 16),Said he didn’t have to apologize for the U.S. shooting down a Chinese high-altitude balloon. He mentioned that the balloon incident once again showed the “importance of keeping the channels of communication open” with China, and he next hopes to talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping to “clarify this matter.” “I think the last thing Xi Jinping wants is to completely tear apart the relationship with the United States and with me,” Biden told NBC News.
World Meteorological Organization: There are nearly a thousand weather balloons every day
In the midst of the dispute over “spy balloons” between China and the United States, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) also issued a statement on February 17 explaining “the key role of balloons in climate monitoring.”
The World Meteorological Organization pointed out that in addition to satellites, aircraft, ships, and fixed-point observation stations, nearly 1,000 balloons collect observation data every day. This collected information helps computer forecasting models, meteorologists conduct climate monitoring and master research data to better understand weather and climate processes.
(German Federation, World Meteorological Organization, CNN)
© 2023Deutsche Welle Copyright Statement: All content in this article is protected by copyright law and may not be used without special authorization from Deutsche Welle. Any wrongdoing will result in recovery and be subject to criminal prosecution.
