U.S. failed to detect past Chinese spy balloons, Air Force general says
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-fail...023-02-06/
EXCERPTS: A senior U.S. general responsible for bringing down a Chinese spy balloon said on Monday the military had not detected previous spy balloons before the one that appeared on Jan. 28 over the United States and called it an "awareness gap."
The Pentagon said over the weekend that Chinese spy balloons had briefly flown over the United States at least three times during President Donald Trump's administration and one previously under President Joe Biden.
[...] VanHerck added that U.S. intelligence determined the previous flights after the fact based on "additional means of collection" of intelligence without offering further details on whether that might be cyber espionage, telephone intercepts or human sources.
Senior U.S. officials have offered to brief individuals from the previous administration on the details of previous balloons overflights when Trump was president.
Republican Representative Michael Waltz, who serves on the House of Representatives intelligence committee, said on Sunday that the Pentagon had told him that several Chinese balloon incidents had happened over the past few years, including over Florida.
[...] VanHerck did not rule out that there could have been explosives on the balloon [shot down], but said he did not have any evidence of it either. That risk, however, was a factor in his planning to shoot down the balloon over open water.
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That many occurrences (and only the ones the Pentagon discovered) means China is either extraordinarily careless at controlling them or they are indeed spy related. How many other kinds of UAP "vessels" from other countries are they failing to detect? Get in on the action, North Korea -- these revelations are basically a big invite, if you and many others are not already participating.
Improved surveillance caught Chinese balloon, White House says
https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/polit...s-2724474/
U.S. officials said Monday that improvements ordered by President Joe Biden to strengthen defenses against Chinese espionage helped identify last week’s spy balloon — and determine that similar flights were conducted at multiple points during the Trump administration. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that after Biden took office, the U.S. “enhanced our surveillance of our territorial airspace, we enhanced our capacity to be able to detect things that the Trump administration was unable to detect.”
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White House says Chinese spy balloon was watching ‘sensitive military sites’ and program has been targeting US for years
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world...76839.html
The suspected Chinese espionage airship that was downed by an American F-22 fighter on Saturday was targeting “sensitive military sites” as part of a program that has been known to US officials for a number of years, the White House has said.
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Joe Biden to go on the offensive against China in state of the union speech
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-china...on-1779294
President Joe Biden is likely to harden his rhetoric towards China in his State of the Union speech to Congress on Tuesday after a suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down after passing over the U.S., experts say. While the president is unlikely to tackle head-on Republican criticism that the balloon was not taken out sooner, Biden will "portray China as a bad actor" amid appeals for bipartisanship, according to Alex Waddan, an associate professor in politics at the University of Leicester in the U.K.
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U.S. prediction of war 'in 2025' with China imperils global security
https://independentaustralia.net/politic...rity,17208
INTRO: 'My gut tells me we will fight in 2025,' writes General Mike Minahan, head of the United States Air Force’s (USAF) Air Mobility Command. The General has sent a memorandum to the leadership of the 110,000-strong USAF, with the unambiguous title, 'February 2023 Orders in Preparation for – The Next Fight'.
That fight, in the view of this key military leader, will be against China. Minahan’s belligerent tone is set with his order for personnel to 'consider their personal affairs' and if that was not blunt enough, to 'fire a clip into a 7-meter target, with the full understanding that unrepentant lethality matters most. Aim for the head'.
The Pentagon offered what was intended to be a more diplomatic position: “China is the pacing challenge for the Department of Defense and our focus remains on working alongside allies and partners to preserve a peaceful, free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The Chinese, for their part, have difficulty seeing the placatory Pentagon remarks as being all that soothing.
The flashpoint remains Taiwan. The sabre rattling between China and the U.S. and its allies goes on. Kevin McCarthy, the new U.S. Republican House Speaker has formalised his position as a continuation of the drum-thumping posture of Nancy Pelosi.