(Washington) The United States admitted on Monday that it had still not identified the three mysterious flying objects it had shot down in recent days, while tension mounts with China over reciprocal accusations of espionage.
As a sign of the ambient uncertainty, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre thought it necessary to specify, at the start of her daily briefing on Monday, that the American authorities had “no indication of extraterrestrials or ‘extraterrestrial activities’.
For the rest, the American executive has above all let it be known that it knows nothing, through the voice of John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, attached to President Joe Biden.
“We’re not sure whether or not they had a surveillance capability, but we can’t rule it out,” he said of the “objects” shot down Friday over the Alaska, Saturday over the Yukon in the Canadian Northwest, and Sunday over Lake Huron in the northern United States.
Increased radar capabilities
Coming after the February 4 destruction of a Chinese balloon by the United States, which accuses Beijing of having a veritable “fleet” of spy planes around the world, these successive discoveries have fueled speculation of a Chinese surveillance.
“One of the reasons why we see more of them is that we are looking for them more,” said John Kirby in an attempt to answer them, explaining that after the Chinese ball affair, the United States had honed their radar capabilities.
PHOTO MANDEL NGAN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby
Without it, “it is difficult to detect objects that are moving slowly at high altitude,” he said, noting that those shot down in recent days appeared to move with the wind, without propulsion system or piloting. .
The White House spokesman pointed out that what remains of them, after they were destroyed by missiles from fighter jets, fell back either into frozen Alaskan waters or into remote areas of Canada, such as in the depths of a lake, complicating recovery operations.
John Kirby also repeated that these mysterious objects did not present a military “threat”, but that they could endanger civilian air traffic, which led President Joe Biden to give the order to shoot them down.
However, a few elements have leaked out. The first two “objects” destroyed were the size of a small car – while the Chinese balloon was as big as three buses – and flew at 12,000 meters. The one destroyed in the Yukon was, according to Ottawa, “cylindrical” in shape.
“Octagonal”
Then the Pentagon described the aircraft destroyed on Sunday as “octagonal”, without a nacelle, moving slowly at an altitude of 6,000 meters.
John Kirby was careful not to draw a parallel between these “objects” and the Chinese balloon shot down on February 4.
“We knew exactly what it was. We’ve seen it slow down, maneuver, try to observe what we think are sensitive military sites,” he said.
What China denies: it has admitted to owning the balloon, but describes it as a weather device having drifted involuntarily.
She also made the same statement, on February 6, about a balloon flying over Latin America.
Beijing is now referring its espionage charges to Washington.
“Since last year alone, American balloons have flown over [le territoire de] China on more than ten occasions without any authorization, ”assured a spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy, Wang Wenbin.
” Not true ! »
“That’s not true! We don’t do that! This is absolutely not true! “, Hammered Monday John Kirby, interviewed by the MSNBC channel.
Chinese media reported on Sunday that an unidentified flying object had been spotted off China’s east coast and the military was preparing to shoot it down.
This further complicates relations between China and the United States, which compete for economic, technological and strategic domination of the world.
The head of American diplomacy canceled a trip to China on February 3, and Beijing refused a call between the American Minister of Defense and his Chinese counterpart.
“It should not be inferred that all communications are cut off and that China and the United States no longer speak to each other. We still have an embassy there. We always have the opportunity to speak to senior Chinese officials, ”but assured John Kirby on Monday.