US shoots down a new object as crisis with China escalates

The diplomatic crisis with China dragged on over the weekend after the downing of three other objects, which the United States now believes are also balloons. This was stated by the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate on Sunday, chuck schumerAfter being informed by the President’s team Joe Biden and his National Security Advisor, Jake SullivanWhile they continue to investigate the true intentions of the Chinese and the consequences that the incident could have on relations between the two superpowers.

“They Think They Were, Yeah”Schumer said on the network ABC The question of whether the objects shot down by US warplanes on Friday and Saturday were similar to the first balloon discovered in US skies a week earlier. That one was shot down 4 kilometers off the coast of South Carolina in February, a large object after flying over a stretch of the country. This same Sunday, America also announced that it had Fourth flying object over Lake Huron. According to the Congressman, the United States military shot it down while it was flying over Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes in the north of the country that shares water with Canada. jack bergman and confirmed official sources to the chains CNN why ABC.

It is the third “object” to be neutralized in North America in the past three days, after being shot down over Alaska on Friday and Canada on Saturday. He Department of Defense At the moment, he is unaware of the origin of the three artifacts and cannot yet confirm whether they are Chinese, as the spy balloon was shot down on the 4th.

In a telephone press appearance, the US Undersecretary of Defense and Hemispherical Affairs, Melissa Dalton, explained that the remains of the three artifacts will now be analyzed to try to determine their origin and use, and stressed that “we are there There haven’t been any operations in the past week with no collateral damage.”

The senator from New York explained that on Friday who was shot down in Alaska, It was the size of a small car in front of the first car, which was the equivalent of three school buses and is already being analyzed by special personnel in the US. China has assured that initially the tension balloon had a strict meteorological use, which was questioned by the Americans. They believe it was a spying device flying at an altitude of about 60,000 feet. High, detected on both Friday and Saturday above.

“The bottom line is that until a few months ago we didn’t know anything about these balloons”Schumer said. “It’s crazy that we didn’t know… They’re learning a lot more now. And the military and intelligence are focusing on gathering and accumulating information first, and then doing deeper analysis.”

both Biden and the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, assures that they are trying to identify the functions of the last two located objects. According to Trudeau, a person was violating Canadian airspace on Saturday. He explained that an F-22 fighter jet operated jointly by the two countries took charge of the device that was flying over the border of Yukon and Alaska, a province northwest of Canada that has the lowest population density in North America. One of the areas with Country. It covers about half a million square kilometers – slightly less than Spain – and has the same number of inhabitants as Langreo in Asturias.

Trudeau noted that he spoke to Biden on Saturday and that he also “Canadian forces will recover and analyze the remains of the object”, as he wrote on his Twitter account. It is necessary for the White House to recover the balloon “to determine its purpose and origin”.

Undoubtedly, this is an unusual situation which is already having consequences of a diplomatic nature. state Secretary, antony blink, canceling a trip to China that he had planned while in the Asian giants he defends himself against the allegations. Beijing has indicated that another balloon found flying over Central and South America was carrying out the same function: meteorological research.

However, US intelligence agencies have determined that China’s spy balloon program is part of a global surveillance effort. Gather information about military capabilities From countries around the world, according to three US officials. His interest in US military bases is particularly notorious.