Page 40 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2023 Edition

40 What To Know : The Chinese Spy Balloon

What to know about the

suspected Chinese spy

balloon

The spotting of a high-altitude balloon
over the U.S. mainland this week quickly
spiraled into a diplomatic incident. U.S.
officials say the object is a Chinese spy
balloon, while Chinese officials called it
a “civilian airship” mainly used to track
weather.

The airborne vehicle was originally
spotted over Montana, home to some of
the United States’ nuclear missile silos.
The balloon then moved southeast from
Montana, with locals in Missouri and
Kansas reporting sightings, before a U.S.
military aircraft brought it down just off
the Atlantic Coast, near the Carolinas.
to conduct surveillance and provide aerial that the balloon didn’t represent a
imagery. And in the 1950s, the U.S. Air physical or military threat to people on
The Pentagon said Friday it had assessed
Force launched Project Genetrix, which it the ground. That’s roughly double the
that a similar airborne vehicle spotted
described as its first “large-scale, altitude at which commercial aircraft
over Latin America was a separate
unmanned, high altitude balloon typically fly.
Chinese spy balloon.
intelligence operation,” designed to take
photos over “the Soviet land mass.” The balloon’s path crossed over “a
Spy balloons have previously passed over
number of sensitive sites” a U.S. defense
the United States, but this object was
Balloon surveillance activity has official said, but the Pentagon was
unusual for loitering overhead “for an
continued in recent years. Chinese “taking steps to be extra vigilant so that
extended period of time,” defense
surveillance balloons have been sighted we can mitigate any foreign intelligence
officials say. The incident prompted
“multiple times over the last five years” risk,” a U.S. defense official said
Secretary of State Antony Blinken to
in the Pacific, including near Hawaii, one Thursday.
cancel a planned trip to China that was
U.S. official told The Post.
intended to lower tensions between the
The National Weather Service reported a
two countries.
How big was the suspected spy sighting of a “large balloon” over Kansas

The first known usage of reconnaissance balloon over the United States? City, Mo., in the early afternoon Friday
that was not one of its weather balloons.
balloons was by the French during the
Battle of Fleurus in 1794, when they were The payload of the balloon — the part
used to spy on Austrian and Dutch troops underneath the balloon itself — was the Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said Friday

in what is now Belgium. size of three large buses, according to afternoon she had received reports of the
U.S. officials. A Pentagon official suspected Chinese spy balloon over

Here’s what you need to know about spy previously said the balloon is “large northeast Kansas. “If true, this
balloons, and about the Chinese balloons enough to cause damage from the debris provocation is alarming,” she tweeted.
sighted this week in North America. field if we downed it over an area.” By Saturday afternoon, the balloon had
reached the Carolinas. Residents near

What is a spy balloon? One official said Saturday the airship Myrtle Beach, S.C., spotted the round,
contains “some sophisticated white object high overhead in the early

A spy balloon is just that — a balloon communications gear.” afternoon, before it was downed off the
Atlantic Coast.
used for surveillance purposes. “Clearly
they’re trying to fly this — this balloon The United States had “been tracking it Before reaching the U.S. mainland, the
over sensitive sites … to collect for some time,” as the balloon entered the balloon soared above Alaska’s Aleutian
information,” the U.S. defense official airspace of the U.S. mainland “a couple Islands and Canada, The Washington
said Thursday. of days ago,” a senior defense official
told reporters Thursday. Post reported, citing American officials.
And spy balloons are nothing new: This particular balloon stands out for how
During the American Civil War, the Where did the balloon travel?
long it stayed over U.S. territory.
Union even used hot-air balloons to track
Confederate troop movements. During The balloon was flying at about 60,000
World War I, the photographic section of feet, Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder (Continued on Page 41)
the U.S. Army Air Service used balloons said at a Pentagon briefing Friday, adding