On Friday, Chinese authorities claimed that the China-operated spy balloon seen hovering over sensitive U.S. airspace was a civilian ship and that it accidentally strayed into the United States.
“The airship comes from China and is of a civilian nature, used for scientific research such as meteorology,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, according to a Google translation. “Affected by the westerly wind and its own control ability is limited, the airship seriously deviated from the scheduled route. China regrets that the airship strayed into the United States due to force majeure. China will continue to maintain communication with the US to properly handle the unexpected situation caused by force majeure.”
However, the U.S. Defense Department responded to the statement by China’s claims are false.
“We are aware of [China’s] statement,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder. “However, the fact is we know that it’s a surveillance balloon, and I’m not going to be able to be more specific than that. And we do know that the balloon has violated U.S. airspace and international law, which is unacceptable. And so we’ve conveyed this directly to [China] at multiple levels.”
Ryder also said that the balloon was maneuverable.
“You say that it’s moving eastward and it’s over the continental U.S.,” a reporter said to Ryder. “It’s change — it’s not over Montana anymore.”
“Is the Chinese government controlling the movement of the balloon, or is it just floating with air streams?” the reporter asked.
“So I’m not going to go into any specific intelligence that we may have. Again, we know this is a Chinese balloon and that it has the ability to maneuver, but I’ll just leave it at that,” Ryder responded.
