US shoots down Chinese spy balloon. Video / DW News & Devon Pace/@elitedevon via Spectee
The US has unveiled sanctions against Chinese companies it linked to a suspected surveillance balloon programme after its fighter jets shot down another unidentified “high-altitude object” over Alaska.
The US commerce department said the five companies and one research institute it added to an export blacklist had been supporting China’s military efforts, “specifically the People’s Liberation Army’s aerospace programmes including airships and balloons.
”Today’s action makes clear that entities that seek to harm US national security and sovereignty will be cut off from accessing US technologies,” said Alan Estevez, the under-secretary of commerce for industry and security.
The US says this object is a Chinese spy balloon moving east over America at an altitude of about 60,000 feet. Photo / AP
The new restrictions come after the White House said that it would consider broader efforts to “expose and address” China’s larger surveillance activities that are threatening US and allies’ national security.
The spectacle of the Chinese spy balloon drifting over the US last week caused outrage in Washington and brought into sharp focus the challenge China poses to America and its allies.
A US fighter jet then shot down a “high-altitude object” in Alaskan airspace, officials revealed.
The object, which officials say they have not conclusively identified, was roughly the size of a car and much smaller than the Chinese balloon that was shot down off South Carolina after crossing the continent, said a Pentagon spokesman.
John Kirby, the White House national security council spokesman, said the object was downed by a F-22 jet because it was flying at about 40,000ft and posed a “reasonable threat” to the safety of civilian flights, not because of any knowledge that it had been engaged in surveillance.
Commercial airliners and private jets can fly as high as 45,000ft.
Asked about the shooting down of the object, President Joe Biden said only that “it was a success”.
But Cedric Leighton, a retired US Air Force colonel, speculated that from the information that has been publicly released, the object that was shot down might have been a weather balloon - based on the fact that it did not have any “connective capability.”
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. Photo / AP
”Did we shoot down an NWS (National Weather Service) Weather balloon??,” tweeted Dan Satterfield, physicist and fellow of the American Meteorological Society, in agreement, sharing a meteorological map.
Debris from the object came down near Prudhoe Bay, which is home to North America’s largest oilfield. Recovery operations were hampered yesterday by a mix of snow and ice.
This week, lawmakers from both major parties demanded answers from a panel of senior Pentagon officials, summoned to Capitol Hill for a hearing about their handling of the surveillance balloon situation.
Several wanted to know why the Chinese balloon had been allowed to float all the way to the Atlantic Ocean before being shot down.
Washington believes the balloon shot down over the Atlantic last weekend is part of an extensive Chinese surveillance programme.
But is believed that Xi Jinping, China’s leader, may not have been aware of the mission.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden. Photo / AP
The assessment was communicated to lawmakers in Thursday’s briefings, according to CNN.
Being added to the export blacklist list makes it hard for targeted companies to obtain US tech exports.
Both Biden and Donald Trump, his predecessor, have used the list to punish Chinese companies viewed as a threat to national security and to keep Beijing from advancing militarily.
Two of the entities targeted for sanctions are Beijing Nanjiang Aerospace Technology and China Electronics Technology Group Corporation 48th Research Institute.
