China confirmed on Monday the Chinese origin of the balloon currently flying over Latin America, the United States being mobilized to recover the debris of a similar device that they shot down over the weekend in their airspace.
Washington presented the aircraft as a spy device. In Beijing, the authorities assure that it was a civilian machine that deviated from its trajectory. They disapproved of using a missile to shoot him down.
This balloon had aroused the discontent of the United States, which accused China of an “unacceptable violation” of their sovereignty. In particular, they postponed a planned trip to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
On Monday, Chinese diplomacy confirmed that a second balloon, spotted over Latin America in recent days, came from China.
“It is civilian in nature and used for flight testing,” Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said Monday at a regular press briefing.
“Due to the effects of the climate and due to its limitations in terms of maneuverability, this balloon seriously deviated from its planned trajectory and became lost in the sky over Latin America and the Caribbean. »
The US Department of Defense said on Friday that it had spotted a second “Chinese surveillance balloon”, over Latin America this time.
The Colombian Air Force then reported over the weekend that an object with ‘balloon characteristics’ had been detected and ‘monitored’ until it left the airspace national.
Bilateral tensions
The first balloon had spent several days flying over North America, before Washington announced on Saturday that an F-22 fighter had shot it down off the coast of South Carolina.
General Glen VanHerck, commander of US forces in North America, said Sunday that the Navy was conducting “recovery operations, with the assistance of the US Coast Guard to secure the area and maintain public safety”.
The Pentagon says it was a spy balloon used by China “in an attempt to monitor strategic sites” in the United States.
Beijing maintains that the aircraft was intended for scientific research, in particular meteorology, having deviated from its trajectory.
On Monday, the Chinese government accused the United States of having “seriously” damaged bilateral relations by shooting down the craft. The day before, a deputy foreign minister, Xie Feng, warned that China “reserved the right” to retaliate.
In the United States, the Republican opposition has accused President Joe Biden of not having had a firmer and faster response.
“Downing the balloon over the water was not only the safest option, but also the one that maximized the information gathered” by recovering the remains of the craft, retorted the leader of the Democrats on Sunday. Senate, Chuck Schumer.
“This will help analyze the technology used by the Chinese military,” he said.
“Tintamarre”
The affair caused last week the postponement at the last minute of a visit to Beijing by the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken.
It would have been the first visit to China by a secretary of state since that in 2018 by Mike Pompeo.
Shortly before the announcement of this postponement by Washington, China had apologized for the intrusion of the balloon into American airspace.
This did not prevent the case from gaining great momentum in the media and political debate in the United States, against a backdrop of Sino-American rivalry.
“The Americans are making a big fuss about this incident. But when things get out of hand, it doesn’t lead to anything good, it doesn’t serve peace in the world, ”lamented Mr. Xu, an elderly Beijinger met by AFP, on Monday.
“American military reconnaissance planes often pass near the Chinese coast. But China remains magnanimous, it does not make a big deal out of it,” he added.
Li Yize, 23, another Beijing resident, said Washington’s decision to shoot down the balloon was “a way for the United States to show off its military power”.
“I think that if China were in the place of the United States and an aerial probe had entered Chinese territory, it would also have treated this file with severity,” he told AFP.