China says Latin American countries ‘understand’ spy balloon situation

The Chinese government confirmed today that the Latin American countries it flew through in the second Chinese plane discovered by the Pentagon, “understands” that he “poses no threat”.

“China has always been guided by international law, we are not a threat to any of these countries, and they understand it that way,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a daily press conference on Monday.

The countries over which the passage of the aircraft was recorded, according to various sources, are Costa Rica, Colombia and Venezuela.

According to Mao, the airship “belongs China”, it is used “for flight testing for civilian reasons” and “it has been affected by weather conditions, in addition to its limited maneuverability, which has caused it to inadvertently enter Latin American airspace.”

Last Friday, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder announced that the US had detected a second airship after the one found on Thursday in US airspace but in skies over Latin America.

China did not comment on this second assumption “spy ball” until this Monday.

Tensions between the US and China

A crisis “spy balls” The situation escalated this Saturday after the United States, on the direct orders of US President Joe Biden, shot down a Chinese plane that had been flying over the North American country for several days.

In response to maneuver China He expressed deep “displeasure and protest” that the US “overreacted” to the use of force to shoot down a plane overflying its airspace.

The opening of the first “spy balls” in US airspace provoked a diplomatic crisis between Washington and Beijing and led to the suspension of a trip that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken planned to make to the Asian country over the weekend.

In the United States, the Republican opposition has criticized President Joe Biden for not responding harder and faster.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer defended the government’s move, saying it allows “maximum intelligence gathering.”

Schumer said the Senate would receive a secret report on February 15.

Asked by ABC if people in the Chinese military wanted to disrupt Blinken’s visit, former US Chief of Staff Mike Mullen said, “Obviously I think it is.”

He also refuted the theory that balloon strayed off course.

“It was not an accident, it was intentional,” he said.

Blinken’s visit would have been the first visit by a head of an American diplomatic China after the Mike Pompeo tour in 2018. (According to EFE and AFP)