US military frequently conducts balloon surveillance on China, report says

Global Times cites report that US ‘close-in reconnaissance’ spy missions often include balloons
It follows accusations that US balloons flew into Chinese airspace at least 10 times since last May

US-China relations

Amber Wangin Beijing

Published: 7:32pm, 21 Feb 2023

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The United States military has frequently conducted “close-in reconnaissance” on China including the use of balloons, Chinese state media reported.

MizarVision, a Chinese technology and intelligence company, said that the US military used spy balloons, including during Exercise Balikatan with the Philippines in the Bashi Channel from March to April 2022, according to a report cited on Monday by Global Times, a tabloid affiliated with Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily.

The balloons, which are made of durable polythene plastic, could be used for communications, navigation and remote sensing for more than 45 days at a time, the report said.

US only ‘recently’ concluded Chinese balloons used for global spying: Pentagon

The article followed accusations by China that the US had flown balloons into its airspace at least 10 times since last May, including over the Xinjiang and Tibet regions.

The US shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean on February 4, later claiming the balloon was part of a large fleet controlled by the Chinese military which had conducted surveillance over at least 40 countries across five continents in recent years.

US says downed Chinese balloon part of years-long surveillance plan

MizarVision said the US military conducted “close-in reconnaissance operations” over the South China Sea more than 600 times using spy planes, citing open source data from Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B).

Similar reconnaissance sorties also took place in the East China Sea, including during August, when the Chinese People’s Liberation Army conducted large-scale exercises around the island of Taiwan, according to the company’s monitoring, Global Times reported.

The company could not be reached for comment.

Accusations between Washington and Beijing over spying using surveillance balloons have added to tensions that were already simmering over the disputed South China Sea and Taiwan.

A report last year by the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing initiative, a Beijing-based think tank, also said the US military had deployed at least four surveillance balloons during Exercise Balikatan last spring.

Another surveillance balloon had been spotted near a former US naval base in the Philippines last December, it said.

According to a 2022 report by Politico that cited budget documents, the Pentagon had continued to invest in balloon-related projects for various military missions.

Over the previous two years, the defence department had spent about US$3.8 million on balloon projects, and planned to spend US$27.1 million in the financial year 2023 to continue the work.

Defence News reported in 2020, citing Lieutenant General Daniel Karbler, that in the future, balloons could support the US Army’s Multidomain Task Force.

03:30

China says US balloons flew over Xinjiang, Tibet as diplomatic row deepens

China, which has insisted that the balloon shot down by the US was a weather balloon that accidentally entered US airspace, accused the US of “overreacting” and “hyping up” the incident.

The World Meteorological Organization said in a report on Friday that around 1,000 weather balloons were released every day from 900 locations worldwide to provide crucial real-time data.

Last year, a report by PLA Daily, the official newspaper of the People’s Liberation Army, said advances in technology meant that such balloons could be more manoeuvrable and reach higher altitudes to avoid threats from anti-aircraft weapons, making them a more cost-effective way to conduct surveillance.