The Chinese military is understood to be on high alert after an unidentified object was spotted flying over its port city of Qingdao. It comes after weeks of speculation about giant balloons – one of which the Pentagon claimed was a Chinese surveillance device – over the US and Canada.
According to the Daily Star, after three objects – apparently balloons – were spotted over North America, accusations also started to fly, heightening international tensions. The US government has already brought down two high-altitude objects, one on Alaska's north-east coast, and another “the size of a small car” near Yukon, Canada. Both have not yet been identified.
A Pentagon official told ABC News that the mystery object was “cylindrical and silverish grey” and gave the “balloon-like” appearance of floating without “any sort of propulsion”.
Pilots sent to intercept the object said that it had “interfered with the sensors” on their aircraft. They also claimed to be unable to identify any means of propulsion, and could not explain how it was staying in the air, despite the fact that it was cruising at an altitude of 40,000ft.
And now the Chinese state newspaper Global Times reported a similar object over Qingdao in eastern Shandong Province. The Daily Mail was reporting that an employee of the marine development authority of the city's Jimo district said that preparations were under way to shoot it down. Fishermen in the area have been warned to watch out for falling débris.
In the light of the occurrences, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, postponed a planned trip to Beijing, which would have been the first visit to the country by a top American diplomat since 2018. Mr Blinken said the presence of the balloon over major US nuclear bases was “an irresponsible act and a clear violation of US sovereignty and international law that undermined the purpose of this trip”.
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Chinese officials maintained the object was a civilian weather balloon that veered off course and that its entry into US airspace was an accident. However, a senior US state department official told The Guardian on Thursday that it had been positioned over the continent “clearly for intelligence surveillance" and was "inconsistent with the equipment onboard for weather balloons".
He added: “It had multiple antennas to include an array likely capable of collecting and geolocating communications.” The other two aerial objects spotted over the US and Canada remain unexplained.
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