US accusations that a downed Chinese balloon was part of an extensive spy programme amount to “information warfare against China”, it has been claimed.
On Wednesday, the Pentagon said the balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast on Saturday was part of a programme involving a number of such airships China has been operating for “several years”.
But at a daily briefing on Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning repeated China’s insistence the large unmanned balloon was a civilian meteorological airship accidentally blown off course and that the US “overreacted” by shooting it down.
“It is irresponsible,” Ms Mao said.
The latest accusations “may be part of the US side’s information warfare against China”, she added.
US officials have dismissed China’s claims and agents from the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are cataloguing debris recovered from the ocean and transporting it for further processing.
When similar balloons passed over US territory four times during both former US president Donald Trump and current US president Joe Biden’s administrations, the US did not immediately identify them as Chinese surveillance balloons, said Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder.
But he said “subsequent intelligence analysis” allowed the US to confirm they were part of a Chinese spying effort and learn “a lot more” about the programme.
“I can assure you this was not for civilian purposes … We are 100 per cent clear about that,” Mr Ryder said.
Top administration officials were briefing members of Congress on the Chinese balloon surveillance programme in classified sessions on Wednesday and Thursday.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken cancelled a visit to Beijing planned for this week in the wake of the incident, dealing a setback to efforts at arresting a further deterioration of bilateral relations that have spiralled to their lowest level in decades.
He said the US has briefed dozens of countries on the programme, which officials said has been active over five continents.
“The United States was not the only target,” he said at a news conference with visiting Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg.
Mr Blinken said he and Mr Stoltenberg spoke about the “systemic and tactical challenges” China poses to the alliance and the importance of combatting them.
