China’s foreign minister accused the U.S. of having flown high-altitude balloons into China’s airspace 10 times since the beginning of last year. But National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that’s not true.
“There is no U.S. surveillance aircraft over airspace,” Kirby said.
The former navy admiral gave the same answer when asked if that includes areas China claims as its own like Taiwan and the South China Sea.
The military is still working to recover the balloon in South Carolina, and the objects in Alaska and Lake Huron. Winter conditions are making it more difficult, and the object in Lake Huron likely fell in deep water.
The government is working to find out exactly what the objects are and what they can do.
“We assessed that at this time, these balloons have provided limited additive capabilities to the PRC’s other intelligence platforms used over the United States. But in the future, if the PRC continues to advance this technology, it certainly could become more valuable to them,” Kirby said.
President Biden was briefed in June that these objects are a worldwide phenomenon. The Biden administration is taking credit for discovering the objects and balloons despite the fact that the Chinese program was ongoing during the Trump administration.
Kirby said there are no active objects or balloons flying over the U.S. Monday. But to increase security, the military enhanced its radar system so it can pick up slow speed, high-altitude objects. He said even objects with payloads the size of school buses were not picked up by previous administrations.
While officials are still trying to figure out what the objects are exactly, and where those objects are from, they can at least narrow it down to Earth.
“I don’t think the American people need to worry about aliens with respect to these craft,” Kirby said.
The Biden administration received bipartisan criticism for allowing the spy balloon to fly over the country, including over sensitive military bases.
“The Chinese Communist Party is testing us,” said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., “And we did not rise to the challenge.”
The administration said it will continue to brief members of Congress and state governors.
