US Navy recovery of Chinese spy balloon continues
Live from the scene in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, correspondent Bryan Llenas reports on the Navy’s efforts to recover the remains of the Chinese spy balloon shot down Saturday on ‘The Faulkner Focus.’
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that China’s surveillance flight program posed a threat to “global” security on Wednesday after US intelligence found spy balloons had traveled across five continents. .
Stoltenberg made the statement in response to questions from reporters during a joint news conference with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The Pentagon stated on Wednesday that the US had confirmed Chinese surveillance ships over Europe, North America, South America and Asia, violating the sovereignty of several countries.
Stoltenberg argued that China’s show emphasized the importance of international security organizations such as NATO, saying that China posed a threat not only to national security, but also to “global security.”
“The Chinese balloon over the United States confirms a pattern of Chinese behavior, where we see that China has invested heavily in recent years in new military capabilities, including different types of surveillance and intelligence platforms,” Stoltenberg said.
US INTEL ASSESSES CHINESE SPY BALLOONS THAT TRANSIT US SEVERAL TIMES, WERE ‘UNDETECTED’: SENIOR ADMINISTRATOR OFFICIAL
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shake hands after a news conference in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the State Department in Washington, DC, on 8 February 2023. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
In this photo provided by Chad Fish, a large balloon drifts over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina, with a fighter jet and its wake below, on Saturday, February 4. (Chad Fish via AP)
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“And we have also seen an increase in Chinese intelligence activities in Europe, again, different platforms,” he added. “They use satellites, cybernetics and, as we have seen in the United States, also balloons.”
The relationship between the United States and China has deteriorated in the days since the United States shot down the surveillance ship off the coast of South Carolina. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin requested to speak to his Chinese counterpart, Defense Minister Wei Fenghe, immediately after the shooting down, but China refused the request.
Press Secretary Pentagon Air Force Brig. General Pat Ryder said China has “a lot of explaining to do” about its balloon surveillance fleet.
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“When you look at the scope of this program and the fact that we know these balloons have been detected and what we now later assess to be Chinese balloons operating on at least five continents in regions like Latin America, South America, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Europe,” Ryder said. “Once again, it demonstrates why for the Chinese Defense Department it remains the pace challenge and something it will continue to focus on.”
