Key Takeaways:
- China has accused the United States of violating its air space on several occasions.
- According to Beijing, Washington flew at least 10 balloons into Chinese airspace without approval.
- The White House has slammed Beijing and denied all accusations leveled by it.
YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) — In what comes as yet another twist in the Chinese spy balloon fiasco, Beijing has now accused the Biden Administration of constantly violating its airspace last year. According to China, the United States illegally flew as many as 10 balloons into the country in 2022. The White House, however, denied the allegations.
“It is also common for US balloons to illegally enter the airspace of other countries. Since last year, US high-altitude balloons have illegally flown over China’s airspace more than 10 times without the approval of Chinese authorities,”
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a news briefing.
Wenbin also called on US President Joe Biden and his administration to “first reflect on itself and change course, rather than smear and instigate a confrontation,” according to media reports.
The incident comes just days after the US shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina. The incident received wide condemnation from Xi Jinping’s Government, kickstarting a fresh spat between the two nuclear powers.
While the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinker canceled his trip to Beijing, the Chinese Government turned down Pentagon’s request for a phone call between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe.
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The Biden Administration denies China’s accusations
The White House did not waste time slamming Beijing for the accusation. Denying China’s claims, the Biden Administration called the allegations “false”.
Commenting on the matter, Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the National Security Council, accused China of violating the air space of over 40 countries.
“This is the latest example of China scrambling to do damage control. It has repeatedly and wrongly claimed the surveillance balloon it sent over the US was a weather balloon and has failed to offer any credible explanations for its intrusion into our airspace, airspace of others,”
Watson said in a Twitter post soon after Beijing leveled the allegations.
While the Biden Administration firmly maintains that China’s claims hold no merit, Xi Jinping’s Government had other serious charges. It accused the United States of involving military warships and airplanes to conduct close-range surveillance on Chinese positions. Allegedly, the US conducted over 650 such operations in 2022 and over 60 last month.
Beijing also claimed Washington has conducted illegal surveillance not only against its adversaries but also its allies.
“For the longest time, the US has abused its own technological advantages to carry out large-scale and indiscriminate wiretapping and theft of secrets from all over the world, including from its allies. The US is without a doubt the world’s largest surveillance habitual offender and surveillance empire,”
Wang added in response to questions coming from the press, according to a CNN report.
Last week, the US House of Representatives voted unanimously to condemn China for the “use of a high-altitude surveillance balloon over United States territory“. It termed the act a brazen violation of United States sovereignty.”
With the US-China relations going from bad to worse, the spy balloon fiasco is still far from over.
