America-China-Balloon: Republican MPs raised questions on Biden’s action, China’s intention regarding Chinese balloon

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Washington: Republican lawmakers on Sunday accused China of deliberately spying on sensitive US military bases using a suspicious surveillance balloon. He said that the Biden administration gave Beijing access to US intelligence by not ordering the Chinese balloon to be shot down immediately after receiving information that it was flying high in US airspace.

At the same time, China accused Washington of using unreasonable force, reacting strongly to the incident of the alleged shooting down of its weather research balloon by the US military. China’s Vice Foreign Minister Shi Feng said that he “officially lodged a complaint with the US Embassy on Sunday about the incident of Chinese military shooting down of a civilian unmanned aerial vehicle”.

The incident of Chinese balloon flying in the American sky has added to the tension in the already tense China-US relations. On Saturday, the US military shot down a Chinese balloon on the instructions of President Joe Biden while it was passing over the Atlantic Ocean. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday postponed his visit to Beijing after a Chinese balloon appeared in the American sky. At the same time, after the balloon was shot down, China’s Defense Ministry issued a statement saying that ‘it reserves the right to take necessary steps in response’.

Mike Turner, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee and Republican from Ohio, said, “This was a clear attempt by China to gather information and disrupt command and control of our sensitive missile defense and nuclear weapons bases. This is definitely an emergency, which the administration failed to anticipate.” US defense and military officials had told that the Chinese balloon entered the US air defense zone on January 28 via the Aleutian Islands and entered Canadian airspace on January 30 after flying for a long time in Alaska.

On February 1, it re-entered US airspace and began flying over northern Idaho. On the same day, the White House said that President Biden had been informed about the Chinese balloon flying in American airspace. “This suggests the balloon could have been safely shot down somewhere between Alaska and the Carolinas, but it was not,” said Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republican Party in the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a senior Democrat, said the House would be updated next week on developments related to the Chinese balloon, ranging from its surveillance capabilities to the administration’s action on China’s “brazen actions”. Information about ideas etc. will be included. Schumer called criticism of the Republican Party political and immature. He said the US has sent a “clear message” to China that this (surveillance effort through balloons) is not acceptable.

A senior Biden administration official claimed that Chinese balloons had flown in American skies on at least three separate occasions during former President Donald Trump’s administration as well. One of these incidents happened a few days before Biden assumed the presidency. The official said the incident of Chinese balloons flying over US airspace during Trump’s tenure came to light after he left the White House. He told that intelligence agencies will share information related to China’s global surveillance program with the officials of the previous administration.

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