(Beijing) China on Tuesday called on the United States to “conduct a thorough investigation” into what it presents as the repeated incursion of American balloons into its airspace.
Bilateral relations have turned sour since the destruction by an American fighter plane on February 4 of a Chinese balloon flying over American territory at high altitude.
According to Washington, it was a spy device which notably observed American military bases. For its part, Beijing presented this aerostat as a civil infrastructure which had deviated from its trajectory.
Since this incident, other flying objects have been seen over Canada and the United States, before being shot down, according to Washington. The nature of these devices and their affiliation is not yet known.
Determined to counterattack, China reiterated on Tuesday its accusations, launched the day before, according to which several American balloons would also have flown over its territory without authorization.
“Since May last year” the United States “has launched several high-altitude balloons from American soil, which have made continuous flights around the world, illegally flying over the airspace of China and other countries in at least 10 times,” said Wang Wenbin, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
“The United States must thoroughly investigate this and provide China with an explanation,” he said during a regular press briefing.
Wang Wenbin did not provide additional details on the altitude or the alleged location of these balloons, calling on the press to ask the question in Washington, which had already denied these accusations.
The spokesman for the American National Security Council, John Kirby, had thus assured Monday that the United States “does not fly surveillance balloons over China”.
The United States claimed that the Chinese balloon it shot down on February 4 was part of a “fleet” of spy planes sent by China around the world.
Search teams have already recovered significant parts of the craft’s sensors and electronics, as well as large parts of the structure, from the Atlantic, according to the US military.
Since the destruction of the Chinese balloon, Beijing accuses Washington of having reacted excessively, under pressure from public opinion and the American media.