The cost of chaos: the story of Peter Bergen and the GRAND UNION project – a secret aviation program in 1954–1954
Peter Bergen is a national security analyst at CNN, vice president at New America and a professor at Arizona State University. Bergen is the author of The Cost of Chaos: The Trump Administration and the World. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.
It reminded me that my father worked on a program to help send balloons into Soviet airspace when he was a lieutenant in the US Air Force.
In 1954 he was assigned to Headquarters Air Material Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. The GRAND UNION was a project that used balloons and cameras to shoot over the Soviet Union. Turkey launched the spy balloons.
My dad didn’t talk about this part of his career much, likely because the work was secret, but the program has long since been declassified since it happened around seven decades ago.
Is the F-35 hijacking report baseless? China is not interested in the latest strange object flight over North America, says a State Department official
The US insisted the balloon was being used for a purpose, and that it was not completely dependent on the winds. In the past China has flown balloons into US airspace around Florida and Texas. The balloon was limited in its ability to maneuver.
Now the United States and its rivals have these new-fangled gizmos called “spy satellites,” which can take photos! Full-Motion video is possible. They can take thermal images of people at night. When the skies are clear, they can spy on pretty much anything, with a resolution of centimeters.
Indeed, commercial satellite imagery is now getting so inexpensive that you can go out and buy your own close-up images of, say, a Russian battle group in Ukraine. Just ask Maxar Technologies; they have built up a rather profitable business on this model, which was just acquired two months ago for $6 billion by a private equity firm.
The decision to let the balloon pass over the us is said to have made the US learn more about it than they would have if they had shot it down immediately.
But it may help explain, at least in part, an element of a little-noticed report published by the US Office of Director of National Intelligence last month.
If they are not related to China, are the latest strange objects flying over North America linked to some other hostile power or group, corporate or private entity? Are they even connected to one another or are they simply the result of coincidences at a time of heightened awareness and tensions?
China has done much worse than that. US officials have accused it of benefiting from the work of hackers who stole design data about the F-35 fighter aircraft as China builds its own new generation of fighters – and of sucking up much of the personal information of more than 20 million Americans who were current or former members of the US government when they reportedly got inside the computers of the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in 2015. China called the F-35 theft report “baseless” and denied responsibility for the OPM hacking.
The Biden Administration is reaching out to countries directly about the scope of the program and answer any questions, according to a State Department official.
Roughly half a dozen of those flights have been within US airspace – although not necessarily over US territory, according to one official familiar with the intelligence.
The leading explanation among US intelligence officials is that three objects shot down over North America last weekend were balloons being flown for benign purposes, the White House said Tuesday, the furthest the administration has gone in describing the as-yet-unidentified crafts.
The link to the broader surveillance program, which was uncovered before the latest balloon was spotted last week, was first reported by the Washington Post.
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said that when the balloon is in his possession, he can look at technology, find out who helped build it, and rebuild the supply chain. You can tell its functions and specifications. There’s a very high intelligence value in having it.”
It is not clear what intelligence the US has gleaned that has made officials consider it a credible possibility that the balloon’s overall trajectory may have been at least partly accidental. The US intelligence community is also closely scrutinizing which elements of the Chinese government ordered and approved the balloon’s mission.
The airship deviated from its course due to the winds and self-control issues, according to China’s Foreign Ministry. China regrets that the balloon entered the United States due to force majeure. China will continue to maintain communication with the US to properly handle the unexpected situation.”
While officials have given no indication so far that the object shot down over Alaska is at all related to the Chinese spy balloon, details have been scarce.
This elite team consists of agents, analysts, engineers and scientists, who are responsible for both creating technical surveillance measures and analyzing those of the US’ adversaries.
In addition to building surveillance devices that target national security threats, OTD personnel are also responsible for managing court-authorized data collection and fighting foreign espionage in the US.
But, according to one member of the House Intelligence Committee, “there’s number of reasons why we wouldn’t do that. We want to collect off it, you want to see where it’s going and what it’s doing.
A defense official said that the US has procedures in place that will protect sensitive locations from overhead spy flights.
The US military ended its recovery operations for a suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina and the subsequent search for flying objects it later crashed off the coast of Alaska and over Lake Michigan after days of unsuccessful searches.
On Monday, a general from NORAD said that the balloon was at least 200 feet tall and carried a load bigger than a few thousand pounds.
US officials had been tracking the balloon for several days by the time it appeared in the skies over Montana. President Joe Biden said over the weekend that he’d directed the US military to shoot down the balloon as soon as it was safe to do so, but officials said it posed a risk to civilians and property on the ground.
It is a risk to see large debris falling out of the sky. VanHerck said on Monday that they were talking about that. “So glass off of solar panels, potentially hazardous material, such as material that is required for a batteries to operate in such an environment as this and even the potential for explosives to detonate and destroy the balloon that could have been present.”
The time frame gave us the opportunity to assess what they were actually doing, what kind of transmission capabilities existed on the balloon, and I believe that it was well worth the value to collect over time.
The Airship in the US Arrived After a Shot Down by a Chinese Spy Balloon and Observed in Latin America
The Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying it was an accident that the airship entered the US after verification by the Chinese side.
This action by the People’s Republic of China on the eve of my planned visit is detrimental to the interests of the United States and is in violation of international law.
China said it has a high-altitude balloon spotted in Latin America that is also conducting weather research.
The Foreign Ministry of China said on Monday that it is a responsible country. We have always followed international law. We have informed all relevant parties and appropriately handled the situation, which did not pose any threats to any countries.”
The new details come as lawmakers on Capitol Hill are pressing to gain a better understanding of why the Biden administration shot down three unidentified objects in three days following the take down of the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the US the previous weekend.
The Biden administration came under scrutiny after the suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Carolinas.
Lawmakers were told Thursday that the order to send the balloon was dispatched without Chinese President Xi Jinping’s knowledge, sources familiar with the briefing said.
What Have We Learned about the Pentagon’s $pi0$–$overlapping$ Program? The Case of US Airspace Explosions
One official said that only theopy, wiring, and a small amount of electronics were found on the surface of the ocean, and that these have been delivered to FBI analysts. The analyst has not seen the payload, which is where you would expect to see the lion’s share of electronics.
Glenn VanHerck, the commander of US Northern Command and NORAD, said on Monday that they did not assess that it posed a significant collection hazard.
Are the latest incidents linked in any way to Beijing’s espionage program described by the administration after the shooting down of the Chinese balloon and other reported crossings of other balloons over US territory? Any indication of successive Chinese breaches of US airspace would mark a serious twist in US-China relations already tested by a belligerent Beijing at what may be the start of a 21st century Cold War.
Several Republicans objected to the administration, including one who said the president looked weak because the Pentagon made him look weak.
The Pentagon was telling us that they were able to adjust in real-time as the situation was evolving, and I think that is correct, as they expressed their safety concern in real time, as well.
“I believe that the administration, the president, our military and intelligence agencies, acted skillfully and with care. At the same time, their capabilities are extraordinarily impressive. Was everything done 100% correctly? I can’t imagine that would be the case of almost anything we do. But I came away more confident,” Romney said Thursday.
Hearing the alleged spy balloon over Alaska: Pentagon officials say no military threat despite the senators’ briefings and an unidentified source
Senators pushed defense officials at an Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday over the military’s assessment of the Chinese surveillance, with Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana telling officials that he did not know how they could unequivocally say it was not a military threat.
“You guys have to help me understand why this baby wasn’t taken out long before and because I am telling you that that this ain’t the last time. We have seen short incursions and now we have seen a long incursion, what is the next course of action? asked the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee.
He explained that the committee has briefed them many times about the risks China poses, both economically and military. Until a line is set down, China tends to push the envelope.
Pentagon officials said at the hearing that the Defense Department did not worry about the balloon gathering intelligence over Alaska because it was not near sensitive sites.
The pieces of the balloon that came to the surface of the water have been delivered so far, while more parts of the balloon have been complicated by bad weather.
The officials said that they were not sure if the parts were made in America or someplace else. Because analysts have yet to look at the bulk of the equipment on the balloon, the officials said that there has not been a determination as to everything the device was capable of doing and its specific intent.
Analysts have not identified any sort of bomb that would pose a risk to the American public.
There was English writing on parts of the balloon that were found, one of the sources familiar with the congressional briefings said, though they were not high-tech components. The source was unwilling to say what part of the balloon contained English writing.
“As we saw with the second balloon over Central and South America that they just acknowledged, they also have no explanation for why they violated the airspace of Central and South American countries,” the official said. The PRC program will only get exposed, which will make it harder for the PRC to use it.
A senior State Department official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity said on Thursday that what has been learned about the alleged Chinese spy balloon has not been fully understood.
The main electronics payload, however, has not been recovered yet, one of the FBI officials said, adding that it was “very early” to assess what the intent was and how the device was operating.
A New High-Altitude Object from the US Air Force: The Story of Chinese Ballooning in Alaska and the U.S.
“That narrative is probably part of the information and public opinion warfare the U.S. has waged on China,” Mao added. The international community is aware that who is the world’s number one country for espionage, eavesdropping, and surveiling.
And the government is investing in improvements, too. In 2018, for example, China launched a project to research materials that can be used to make balloons that can float higher without losing buoyancy.
It has been claimed that senior Trump administration officials did not know that Chinese balloons entered US airspace during the last administration.
The Pentagon said an object was seen over Alaska on Friday evening, and later, the White House confirmed Trudeau and Biden authorized the shoot-down.
With the North American Aerospace Defense Command on heightened alert, US fighters have now blasted three objects out of the skies since Friday following the shooting down of the Chinese balloon off the South Carolina coast on February 4:
John Kirby, who is a National Security Council spokesman, announced on Friday that the Department of Defense was following a high-altitude object over Alaska.
Ryder also emphasized that officials do not know the origin of the object, which did not appear to be manned, and that it was shot down because it posed a “reasonable threat to civilian air traffic” as it was flying at 40,000 feet.
According to Kirby, Biden was first briefed on the object on Thursday evening, as “soon as the Pentagon had enough information.” It “did not appear to be self-maneuvering,” Kirby said.
The fighters were able to get around it before the order was given to shoot it down, and the pilots assessment was that it was not manned.
“President Biden authorized US fighter aircraft assigned to NORAD to conduct the operation and a US F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory in close coordination with Canadian authorities,” the White House statement said. “The leaders discussed the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin.”
The US Northern Command, along with the Alaska National Guard and units are taking part in the attempt to recover the object.
“We’re calling this an object because that’s the best description we have right now. We don’t know who owns it – whether it’s state-owned or corporate-owned or privately-owned, we just don’t know,” Kirby said.
The object first came to the attention of the US government “last evening.” Biden was first briefed Thursday night “as soon as the Pentagon had enough information,” Kirby said.
Observation of a Shot-Down Object in the Deadhorse, Alaska, Airspace by the Canadian Defence Minister
Kirby said that the object was at the mercy of prevailing winds, making it less predictable.
The military took action against the object and the FAA temporarily restricted flights in the area around Deadhorse, Alaska.
It was hard for pilots to get a whole lot of information since it was much smaller and the ability of the fighter aircraft was not very high.
An unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday, marking the third time in a week that US fighter jets have taken down objects in North American airspace.
The Canadian Defense Minister said at a news conference that the object is smaller than the Chinese balloon that was shot down.
A US official said that the object was not likely to be more sophisticated than the Chinese balloon shot.
Ryder said on Friday that recovery teams have “mapped the debris field” and are “in the process of searching for and identifying debris on the ocean floor.”
When asked Friday if lessons learned about China’s balloon assisted in detecting the object shot down over Alaska, Ryder said it was “a little bit of apples and oranges.”
Ryder’s statement said that while Canadian authorities conduct recovery operations, the FBI will be “working closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.”
The Canadian Defence Minister had talked to the US Defense Secretary about the incident and vowed that they would always defend their sovereignty.
Observational Evidence of State-Dependent Recovery Activities in the Last Two Days: CNN’s Investigation of an Airborne Object Shot Down over Lake Huron
“Recovery activities are occurring on sea ice,” the statement said. “We have no further details at this time about the object, including its capabilities, purpose, or origin.”
US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau both approved the shoot down on Saturday, according to a statement from the White House.
A source briefed on the intelligence told CNN that some pilots claimed it interfered with their sensor, but others didn’t experience that.
The three aerial devices have destroyed some of the federal government’s property over the past few days. The administration hasn’t been able to say with certainty what they were doing, where they were from or even what type of craft they were – conditions ripe for conspiracies.
The intrigue is also unfolding against a tense global situation, with already difficult relations with rising superpower China becoming ever more hostile and with the US leading the West in an effective proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.
“What’s gone on in the last two weeks or so, 10 days, has been nothing short of craziness,” Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana said Sunday on “Face the Nation” on CBS, hours before an airborne object was shot down over Lake Huron.
Even at the height of last century’s Cold War, when US jets often headed off Soviet aircraft testing North American and European defenses, pilots weren’t typically sent off to shoot down unidentified objects over the US and Canada. It’s not normal for Americans to settle down for the Super Bowl with their president firing off orders to blast unknown objects out of the North American sky.
NORAD and the US Northern Command often take against airborne objects over the US airspace, but recently there’s been a few shot down.
So the events of the last few days do provoke serious national security and political questions that stretch far beyond the often narrow political battle in Washington, and that can only be assessed once more details are understood.
New speculation and criticism could be premature as officials work to fully understand the sequence of events. CNN’s Natasha Bertrand reported on Sunday that NORAD had recently readjusted the filters it uses to sift data, which had previously concentrated on spotting fast-moving objects below a certain altitude. Early warning filters had previously been set to avoid picking up other objects, including birds and weather balloons, a source briefed on the matter said.
Speculation and partisan maneuvering are likely to go on despite the lack of specificity. This odd series of occurrences is making Biden’s decision to wait until the Chinese balloon had crossed the country before shooting it down a bigger issue for him in the presidential election season and in a political environment when social media makes conspiracy theories popular.
The political blame game is heating up. On CNN’s “State of the Union,” GOP Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, linked the incursions of US air space to Republican claims that Biden is failing to protect the southern border and complained that senior officials were not briefing Congress enough. And he also adopted a novel critique of Biden given claims that the president didn’t act quickly enough before.
“They do appear somewhat trigger-happy, although this is certainly preferable to the permissive environment that they showed when the Chinese spy balloon was coming over some of our most sensitive sites,” Turner told Jake Tapper.
The U.S. Black-Tie Event at the Black-tie Linear Colliders: Comments on the Recent Object Searches
Biden did not discuss the intrusions at a black-tie event with state governors on Saturday, but he did speak to Americans in person about them over the weekend.
There has been more caution in the pilot descriptions of unidentified objects due to the circumstances in which they were seen, according to a US official.
“They are getting lots of positives that they did not get before. Kayyem was a former assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.
“What we can’t answer now is, is this bigger aperture picking up lots of stuff that has essentially been forgiven, around in the skies, because it didn’t pose a threat, or is it part of something organized for whatever surveillance?”
On Sunday there was more confusion. The objects shot down over Alaska and the Whitehorse were smaller than the original Chinese incursion, according to the Senate Majority Leader, who said he had previously been briefed by Biden’s national security adviser.
Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana appeared to make a direct link Sunday on “CNN Newsroom” between the Chinese balloon and the latest objects, even if there is no confirmation so far that they are connected.
Briefing the Senate Intelligence Committee on Detection of High-Altitude Objects by President Joe Biden and the U.S. Air Force
“It doesn’t give me much safe feelings knowing that these devices are smaller,” he said. I’m worried about the cumulative data that is being collected. The American people need answers.
Speculation may be premature. The balloon debate has changed the tolerance threshold for unknown aerial objects by Biden.
A defense official told CNN late Monday that the Pentagon has not sent an official memo to Capitol Hill but acknowledged they are continuing to brief and send correspondence to relevant committees.
Lawmakers and congressional aides told CNN that the consecutive shoot-downs felt on the surface like an overcorrection to the Chinese spy balloon incident, though they cautioned that it was still too early to say definitively.
“What’s happening now is we’re actually looking for these with extra vigilance. We’re looking for them in different ways. On CNN on Monday, Crow said that they are starting to see them in different ways.
“The truth is that most of our sensors and most of what we were looking for didn’t look like balloons. Now, of course, we’re looking for them. Himes said that they were probably finding more stuff.
There were questions about the balloon shot down and the U.S. approach to airborne objects that prompted a classified intelligence briefing for the Senate Tuesday morning. That session will be followed by a closed hearing by the Senate Intelligence Committee, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET.
The White House on Monday denied that President Joe Biden’s recent swift actions to take down high-altitude objects identified hovering over American airspace were the result of political pressure, following earlier critiques that he waited too long to make the call to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon.
“These were decisions based purely and simply on what was in the best interest of the American people,” National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said Monday.
The First F-16 Jet Launched on Sunday at the Lake Huron – A Search for a Low-Mass Object Identified by a High-Altitude Balloon
The radar used by the North American Defense Command was adjusted after the initial high-altitude balloon incident, a defense official said. We are still refining detection settings and that will not stop even if we have identified smaller objects, the official said.
According to a CNN report, a White House office of legislative affairs memo was sent to Capitol Hill that said that they were looking for what is left of objects to better understand them.
There are no further details about the object, including its scope, purpose, or origin at this time, according to the Pentagon memo.
The Pentagon memo said no more information was available about the description of the object that was shot down and the US Coast Guard ships were sent to the lake to look for it.
The first missile that was launched by an F-16 fighter jet at the object near Lake Huron on Sunday did not hit the target, three people briefed on the matter told CNN.
The Pentagon and White House had not previously disclosed that the first missile did not strike the target, but NORTHCOM and NORAD Commander Gen. Glen VanHerck told reporters on Sunday that acquiring and targeting the object was difficult because of its small size.
The pilots decided to use AIM-9X Sidewinders, which are able to see the heat contrast between an object and the surrounding area. The first missile was unsuccessful in hitting its target. There is no clear explanation of what happened to the missile.
The Recovery of Airborne Disk Objects from the Shot Down X-Ray Detector at the U.S. Capitol Hill
The White House has sought to assure the public that the objects were not from outer space. On Tuesday, a top White House official suggested they were likely harmless.
“The intelligence community’s considering as a leading explanation that these could just be balloons tied to some commercial or benign purpose,” John Kirby, the strategic communication coordinator at the National Security Council, said Tuesday.
On Capitol Hill, senators emerging from a classified briefing on the objects said they were reassured after hearing from administration officials that the objects posed no threat to the American people.
Romney said there are things up in the air, but that he didn’t worry about it.
“Getting our hands on that debris and having investigators look at that debris would certainly be of immense value in terms of our ability to positively identify what these objects were, and, and what their purpose was. Kirby said they are going to continue the intensive recovery efforts.
So far, those efforts have been hampered by what he described as “pretty tough conditions,” exacerbated by the geographic challenges on Lake Huron, in the Yukon wilderness and on sea ice north of Alaska.
“Pretty tough weather conditions, let alone just geographically, just tough time of year,” Kirby said, noting that the Chinese spy balloon debris recovery off the coast of South Carolina earlier this month was also hampered by high seas in the Atlantic Ocean due to the time of year.
The government is relying on information from the Federal Aviation Administration and intelligence community to find out about the mysterious airborne devices.
The government leans more on the US intelligence community to assess the objects, says an administration official. Observations by US military pilots are being studied, as well as flight patterns before the objects were shot down, an official said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday the search area in Yukon was a “fairly large area” in dense wilderness. Canadian officials talked about recovering debris from the high altitude objects shot down during a meeting Monday.
“We are working very hard to locate them, but there’s no guarantee that we will. The terrain in the Yukon is much more difficult than what we are used to, so we are facing some significant challenges in terms of our recovery efforts at the moment.
Biden and the unidentified airborne objects that have been taken down over the past few weeks: a warning to the public about the possibility of astrophysical invasions
The White House’s Press Secretary says there is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity in the recent takedowns.
She said there was no indication that aliens or Aliens were involved with the take-down. To make sure that the American people were aware of that. And it was important for us to say that from here because we’ve been hearing a lot about it.”
The recent events were ripe for conspiracy theories because of the inherently mysterious nature of the airborne objects.
“Everyone wants answers that no one has at the moment,” one official said, conceding there was a risk with the void of information that conspiracies could sprout.
And officials had been wary of having the president speak publicly about the objects until more information was gathered about the three unidentified objects that were downed last weekend.
Administration officials say that their goal is to provide as much information as possible, even though it is not optimal for effective communication.
Biden himself has expressed a desire to be as transparent as possible about the devices with both Congress and the American public, according to officials, but the president has acknowledged that without a full picture of what the objects were, his ability to communicate on them is limited.
One lawmaker who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee had told CNN on Monday that it would be prudent for Biden to directly address the public, particularly given that the situation was ripe for conspiracy theories.
The U.S. Response to the Beijing Airborne Explosion on Feb. 9: Observational and Geopolitical Aerial Objects
The recovery operation has included the use of a crane to bring up large pieces of the airship, which was kept aloft by a balloon estimated to be up to 200 feet tall.
Even before that shootdown, analysts urged the Biden administration not to allow the craft to return to China — both to limit the data it might convey, and to allow the U.S. to gain its own insights by recovering the equipment.
News of the intrusive Chinese balloon touched off alerts in the U.S. and beyond. When the Pentagon said that a similar high-altitude balloon had been identified over Latin America, China responded by saying that it was another research balloon and that the events were beyond the country’s control.
As for how the U.S. will handle cases of unidentified aerial objects objects in the future, Kirby said on Tuesday that the National Security Council likely will present new guidance by the end of the week.
A trade war, semiconductors, human rights: in recent years, the U.S.-China relationship has been rocked by successive geopolitical crises that have strained the dynamic between two of the world’s most powerful countries.
Feb. 9: The U.S. briefs diplomats from 40 countries about the Chinese balloon it shot down. On Capitol Hill, both chambers of Congress receive classified briefings on the incident. The House unanimously passed a resolution condemning the alleged Chinese monitoring of the U.S.
Emily Feng reported from Taipei. Lexie Schapitl reported from Washington, D.C. Vincent Ni and Padmananda Rama contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
Blinken and Wang will both attend the Munich Security Conference this weekend. US officials have not ruled out the chance of a meeting between the two.
The Pentagon should not let the Chinese Balloon “Spy” Go: A New Look at U.S. Air-Space Measures and Implications for radomes
Asked earlier this month whether the Chinese government is “controlling the movement of the balloon, or is it just floating with air streams,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. General Pat Ryder didn’t comment in detail.
He wouldn’t talk about specific intelligence that we might have. We know that this is a Chinese balloon and that it is able to maneuver, but I will just let it go.
Biden directed Jake Sullivan to lead an agency team that would look into U.S. procedures after the shooting down of the Chinese balloon.
The administration will be making a better inventory of radomes above American airspace, implementing more measures to detect them and updating rules and regulations for encounters with these types of objects above US skies.
The initial Chinese spy balloon has been briefed on on the Capitol Hill by officials from the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence community.
Republicans on Capitol Hill have criticized Biden for not approving the military to down the first balloon quickly enough, letting it sail eastward for days. They called on him to speak on the matter.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry reveals that a Chinese weather balloon was found on an outlying island (Taipei, Taiwan)
The military advised against shooting it over land because of it’s size. It was the size of multiple school buses and it posed a risk to people on the ground if it was shot down where people lived,” he said. We analyzed its capabilities and learned a lot about how it operates. We were able to prevent collection because we knew its path. We waited until it was under the water so we could recover more components for further analysis.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s Defense Ministry says a Chinese weather balloon landed on one of its outlying islands, amid U.S. accusations that such craft have been dispatched worldwide to spy on Washington and its allies.
The ministry said in a statement that the balloon carried equipment for a state-owned electronics company.
Taiwan maintained control of the islands after the sides split in 1949 amid civil war and they are considered a first line of defense should China make good on its threats to bring Taiwan under its control by force if necessary.
The publicity officer at the company said it had provided electronics but had not built the balloon, and that he was Reached by phone.
The manufacturer of equipment that was provided to the China Meteorological Administration is Taiyuan, according to the information given by the spokesman.
The balloon was likely among those launched daily to monitor weather and was probably set off from the coastal city of Xiamen with no fixed course, he said.
Its deflation was likely a natural outcome of it having reached maximum altitude of around 30,000 meters (almost 100,000 feet), Liu said. There are balloons that fly over the Taiwan Strait, but they have recently begun to draw attention.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry says that the equipment information was written in simplified Chinese characters on the mainland.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/17/1157771528/taiwan-reports-that-a-chinese-weather-balloon-was-found-on-an-outlying-island
The Three Shot Down in Lake Huron: Comment on U.S. Interior Secretary and White House Press Briefing on “Does China Really Need a Nuclear Force?”
Washington is Taiwan’s closest military and diplomatic ally, despite a lack of formal ties, which were cut in 1979. Beijing protests strongly over all contacts between the island and the U.S., but its aggressive diplomacy has helped strengthen bipartisan support for Taipei on Capitol Hill.
While not expressing regret for downing the three still-unidentified objects, Biden said he hoped the new rules would help “distinguish between those that are likely to pose safety and security risks that necessitate action and those that do not.”
The recovery effort ended after “U.S. Navy assets assigned to U.S. Northern Command successfully located and retrieved debris” from the balloon, a statement from US Northern Command said Friday.
The US military, federal agencies, and Canadian partners conducted a systematic search of each area using a variety of capabilities in order to find two of the three objects shot down over North America last weekend.
The failed search efforts make it more and more likely that the public will not be given a proper explanation of what the objects were.
National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby suggested as much at a White House press briefing on Friday, telling reporters, “We would like nothing better, but I can’t sit here and promise you that we’ll get to that level of fidelity of detail.”
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have not been able to locate the object that fell into Lake Huron as the Canadians have decided not to look for it.
It is going to be very difficult to locate them in this kind of environment, and even if you find the debris to identify it, it won’t be easy to do the forensic work. So I can’t promise you that we’ll know definitively one way or the other,” he added.