The White House denies the United States sent balloons into Chinese airspace as tensions escalate between the two superpowers over espionage.
“Any claim that the US government is using observation balloons over the People’s Republic of China is false,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said on Twitter on Monday.
She added that the People’s Republic of China “has a program of high-altitude observation balloons for intelligence gathering.”
This was in response to a statement by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenping, who confirmed that since January 1, 2022, American airships have illegally flown over Chinese airspace more than 10 times.
Earlier, the US military command reported that 3 balloons entered US airspace during the reign of former President Donald Trump, but Trump himself denies this information.
The American side emphasized that China uses similar balloons to collect intelligence information in more than 40 countries on 5 continents.
Chinese authorities deny these accusations, pointing out that they are civilian weather balloons and demand the return of their wreckage.
Source: AFP+ News