The confused and contradictory messaging around the three aerial objects shot down last week in the wake of the downing of a Chinese spy balloon is helping no one
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken & China’s Wang Yi met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, in the first high-level US-China meeting after the spy balloon controversy. But instead of defusing the tension, the meeting only added fuel to the fire, with US & Chinese officials exchanging barbs over issues ranging from China’s support for Russia to the balloon which wreaked up an international controversy. Watch to know what happened at the meeting
Just when we all thought US-China relations may start to get better, a BALLOON was spotted hovering over sensitive military sites in Montana, US. This Chinese ‘spy balloon’ which was shot down by the United States on 4th February has now led to an international flurry, with multiple countries pumping up their air defence - and China, accusing the US of ‘over-reacting’, saying that it was in fact the US who in fact kept violating China’s airspace. But what even ARE these spy balloons - and how can they be used for surveillance? Watch this video to find out!
Regional analysts and diplomats are closely watching China's response after a U.S. fighter jet shot down the balloon - which Beijing says was an errant weather-monitoring craft - in the Atlantic off South Carolina on Saturday.
The spy balloon heightened US-China tensions, ahead of a high-stakes meeting between the two sides, which has now been postponed.
This is not the first time a shootout of a foreign surveillance device or a spy balloon like this made headlines.
“It was stunning," senator Greg Hembree of Horry, who watched the strike from his neighbor's backyard, said. “You don't ever think you're going to see a live engagement with an adversary in sort of a military context.”
Haley Walsh shared footage of the suspected Chinese spy balloon being shot down by US fighter jets and said she "heard and felt the explosion".
The Chinese spy balloon which was shot down on Sunday was about the size of three school buses, US officials said.
The Pentagon assesses that this balloon was part of a fleet of Chinese spy balloons. It said another Chinese balloon was also spotted flying over Latin America of February 3 and over five continents in the past several years
The visit by Anthony Blinken has also been put off at a time when the Republicans have raised serious questions about Hunter Biden’s business interest in China and demanded the President come clean on it
At the joint news conference with the visiting South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, Blinken said it was very important to emphasize that the presence of this surveillance balloon over the United States skies was a clear violation of its sovereignty, international law, and clearly unacceptable.