United States officials shot down a Chinese air balloon above the coast of South Carolina. Art by Anthony Arroyo.
By Anthony Arroyo, Staff Reporter
The shooting of a Chinese spy balloon by the United States government has spiraled into an even bigger issue concerning the entire North American continent.
The balloon was first spotted in Alaska on Jan. 28 before being shot down on Feb. 4. In between those days, the balloon hovered over parts of Canada and Idaho. Government officials held off on shooting down the balloon over concerns that the debris would hurt civilians below. When the balloon reached the South Carolina coast, it was shot down under the orders of President Joe Biden.
The debris was retrieved by U.S. officials and they confirmed its surveillance use purposes, although the Chinese government claims that it was a balloon capturing meteorological data that was blown off course.
Since the shooting of the balloon, there have been other sightings of suspicious objects floating over North American air spaces. On Feb. 10, a U.S. fighter jet shot down an aircraft-like object flying at 40,000 feet over the northern part of Alaska, which officials described as not having any sense of control. The very next day, U.S. officials shot down another mysterious object also hovering 40,000 feet over Yukon, Canada, about 100 miles from the U.S. border. On Feb. 12, a fourth object, described as octagon-shaped, was brought down over a lake in Michigan.
While the first balloon’s purpose was confirmed, the contents and origins of the three other objects are yet to be discovered. The first balloon was transmitting communication signals that could be traced, but the other objects did not. Debris from those objects is still being retrieved and investigated at the moment.
The sightings of these mysterious objects hovering over North American airspaces have put Biden, White House officials and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) on high alert. NORAD is now actively seeking more of these objects and has adjusted its radar to detect any more of them. In his address to Congress, Biden referenced the balloon incident and said, “Make no mistake about it, as we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did.”
The Chinese government has shown its disapproval of the U.S. shooting down its balloon, and that the U.S. overreacted to the balloon and did not appreciate accusations that China is spying on North American countries. Chinese government officials said it was common for the U.S. to send balloons into other countries and accused the nation of sending 10 balloons over its airspace last year. The U.S. has since denied the allegations.
“This is the latest example of China scrambling to do damage control,” Adrienne Watson, National Security Council spokeswoman, said in a statement. “It has repeatedly and wrongly claimed the surveillance balloon it sent over the United States was a weather balloon and to this day has failed to offer any credible explanations for its intrusion into our airspace and the airspace of others.”
While tensions between the U.S. and China continue to escalate due to the balloon incident, American officials will continue to monitor any more strange objects that enter the country’s airspace.
