New Delhi: US President Joe Biden has decided not to shoot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that entered the country’s airspace two days ago, while its defence headquarters Pentagon mobilised fighter jets to monitor its movement.
The United States took “custody” of the balloon when it entered US airspace and has observed it with piloted military aircraft, Reuters reported.
It is learnt that Biden asked for military options to deal with the balloon but it was decided that there was a danger of debris harming people on the ground where it would be shot down.
The US decided to publicise the discovery Thursday in order “to put China on notice” – the New York Times reported – since US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to visit Beijing next week.
This is the first visit by an American secretary of state in six years, and Blinken is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
This is not the first time that China has sent a spy balloon over the US, but this one has appeared to remain longer over the country, reports said.
This incident is testimony to the lengths that Beijing and Washington have been willing to go in order to spy on each other amid rising tensions between the superpowers.
The balloon, which is flying at a high altitude over America’s northern states, was most recently tracked crossing over Montana, where the US has some of its silo-based nuclear missiles. As a precaution, flights out of Billings Logan airport were suspended on Wednesday, The Guardian reported.
Canada’s Department of National Defence is also actively tracking the balloon. The department said in a statement that the country was “taking steps to ensure the security of its airspace, including the monitoring of a potential second incident.”
Also read: US says it is monitoring Chinese spy balloon flying over northern states