China said on Thursday that the US was using "information warfare" against Beijing when it asserted that a downed Chinese balloon was part of a massive spying operation.
The Pentagon stated Wednesday that the China balloon shot down near the South Carolina coast Saturday was a component of a program involving many similar alleged China spy balloon that China has been running for many years.
While the United States is not actively pursuing confrontation with China, President Joe Biden made it clear in his State of the Union Address that the United States would defend its interests in a conflict with China, per Al Jazeera.
President Joe Biden said in his speech that the US already sent a clear message last week that "if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country - and we did."
On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning reiterated Beijing's position that the big unpiloted balloon was a civilian meteorological aircraft that had mistakenly gone off course and that the United States had "overreacted" by bringing the China balloon down, according to AP News.
China contradicted US suspicions that the China balloon was part of a massive Chinese spying operation.
Although there are still many unanswered concerns about the alleged China spy balloon incident, a review of news from official media in China and scientific publications reveals the country's increased attention to these lighter-than-air vehicles.
Balloons Part of Xi Jinping's Military Program
Chinese military specialists have commended these vehicles for usage for a broad variety of goals, from communication relay, observation, and surveillance, to electronic warfare.
As early as 2014, Chinese leader Xi Jinping pushed the PLA Air Force to "speed up air and space integration" and improve their defensive and offensive capacities," with "near space" being a critical link in the incorporation, according to military analysts, according to CNN.
Multiple US government sources who had access to the data concluded that the Chinese spy balloon was part of a larger, state-sponsored effort by the Chinese military to gather intelligence on other nations, per a previous HNGN report.
A source from the Biden administration revealed that the small Chinese province of Hainan helps manage the surveillance operation by deploying similar balloons.