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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

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

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State-run Chinese tabloid Global Times cited a report that US “close-in reconnaissance” spy missions often include balloons. Photo: AFP
Amber Wangin Beijing
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.

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.

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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.

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).
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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.
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