A suspected Chinese spy balloon has been flying over the United States for a couple of days, US officials said on Thursday, in what would be a brazen act just days ahead of a planned trip to Beijing by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The incident recalls the lengths to which Beijing and Washington have been willing to go to spy on each other amid rising tensions between the superpowers, reports Reuters.
Fighter jets were mobilised but military leaders advised President Joe Biden against shooting the balloon out of the sky for fear debris could pose a safety threat, advice Biden accepted, US officials said.
The United States took "custody" of the balloon when it entered US airspace and had observed it with piloted US military aircraft, one the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
"The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now," Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told reporters.
"The balloon is currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground."
Blinken is expected to travel to China next week for a visit agreed to in November by Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. It was not clear how the discovery of the spy balloon might affect those plans.
The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
US Senator Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, said the spy balloon was alarming but not surprising.
"The level of espionage aimed at our country by Beijing has grown dramatically more intense & brazen over the last 5 years," Rubio said on Twitter.
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he would request a "Gang of Eight" briefing, referring to a classified national security briefing for congressional leaders and Republican and Democratic leaders of the intelligence committees.
The news broke as CIA Director William Burns was speaking at an event at Washington’s Georgetown University, at which he called China the "biggest geopolitical challenge" currently facing the United States.
Relations between China and the United States have soured in recent years, particularly following then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August, which prompted dramatic Chinese military drills near the self-ruled island.
POTENTIAL SAFETY RISK
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, while travelling to the Philippines, convened a meeting of senior Pentagon officials on Wednesday to discuss the high-altitude balloon incident.
US military leaders considered shooting down the balloon over Montana on Wednesday but eventually advised Biden against it because of the safety risk from debris, the official told reporters.
The Billings, Montana airport issued a ground stop as the military mobilized assets including F-22 fighter jets in case Biden ordered the balloon be shot down.
"We wanted to make sure we were coordinating with civil authorities to empty out the airspace around that potential area," the official said.
"But even with those protective measures taken, it was the judgment of our military commanders that we didn't drive the risk down low enough. So we didn't take the shot."
The official said the current flight path would carry the balloon over a number of sensitive sites, but did not give details. Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana is home to 150 intercontinental ballistic missile silos.
A separate US official said the spy balloon had been tracked near the Aleutian Islands and Canada before entering the United States.
Officials declined to say how high the balloon was flying but acknowledged it was operating above civilian air traffic and below "outer space."
US officials brought up the issue with their Chinese counterparts through diplomatic channels in Beijing and in Washington.
"We have communicated to them the seriousness with which we take this issue," the first official added.
Craig Singleton, a China expert of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that such balloons had been widely used by the United States and Soviet Union during the Cold War and was a low-cost intelligence gathering method.
"The timing of this incident is curious, coming only days before Secretary Blinken’s planned travel to Beijing," he said.
Spy balloons have flown over the United States several times in recent years, but this balloon appeared to be lingering longer than in previous instances, the official said.
"Currently, we assess that this balloon has limited additive value from an intelligence collection perspective, but we are taking steps nevertheless to protect against foreign intelligence collection of sensitive information," the official said.