aggravates conflict between Washington and Beijing as the number of mysterious objects violating US airspace has increased in recent days. The United States issued a statement yesterday in response to Beijing’s accusations that spy balloons over China. White House Press Secretary John Kirby said: “We have never done anything like this. It’s a lie”. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously reported that over the past year, China has detected at least ten American spy balloons in its airspace. “What the US should do is a bit of self-criticism instead of constantly blaming China,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

The diplomatic spat comes ten days after the US shot down a balloon-shaped object in South Carolina airspace that hovered at high altitude in US skies for several days and was believed to have been made in China. Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken called the incident “unacceptable” and canceled his upcoming visit to Beijing, which was meant to improve relations between the two superpowers. He accused China of espionage and said the balloon was equipped with panels and sensors designed to map “sensitive areas” of the country. China insisted that it was a “weather balloon” to gather weather information and urged the US not to jump to conclusions or create a climate of terrorism.

A White House spokesman stated that “the new facilities did not look like the February 4 facilities and were smaller.”

On Sunday, President Biden ordered the fourth consecutive shooting down of an unidentified flying object in US airspace. The object, which was seen flying at an altitude of 6100 meters, was shot down over Michigan’s Lake Harron, near the Canadian border, by an F-16 fighter. Wing Commander Glenn Van Herck, head of US Northern Command, noted that “I wouldn’t call it a ‘balloon.’ We don’t just call them “objects”. What we see are very small objects that appear very faint on our radars.” It is “an octagonal structure with strings hanging from it”. The government has not ruled out the possibility that the object in question did not come from Earth. “I’ll let our agencies rule it out,” Van Herck said in response to a question, running the UFO scenarios again. But yesterday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre assured that there is no evidence of extraterrestrial activity associated with the recent downing of unidentified flying objects.

On Friday and Saturday, the US government shot down two more flying objects in Alaska and Yukon in Canada, respectively. The US and Canada are working together to protect North American airspace. “The objects didn’t look like the February 4 balloon and were much smaller than it. We will not give them any characteristics until we study their fragments, ”commented a White House spokesman. Both sites are hard to find as the regions are dominated by polar conditions, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau noting that research is progressing and that “we have a lot to learn.”

Frequent “visits” to Taiwan

According to Taiwanese officials, Chinese “balloons” are a very frequent visitor to the country’s airspace. “They keep coming, the last one was a few weeks ago,” an official told the Financial Times on condition of anonymity, while the retired officer explained that such “raids” have been happening for many years “at least once a month.” The government of the country officially recognized only one incident, when groups of Chinese balloons flew in from the north of the country in four waves. Other neighboring countries such as Japan and the Philippines have also observed similar objects in their airspace, but their governments have provided few details. Military officials are certain they are not “weather balloons” because they are known to be manufactured by the Chinese government’s Equipment Development Agency. “In Taiwan, these balloons fly at a much lower altitude than in the US,” they comment.