The United States says it has now retrieved key electronics, including sensors, from a suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down earlier this month.
“Personnel has been able to recover significant debris from the site, including all priority sensors and electronics as well as large parts of the structure,” the US Army’s Northern Command said in a statement on Monday.
It added that the recovery operation is continuing, although bad weather is hampering the underwater search.
The balloon spent days flying over the United States and Canada before President Joe Biden ordered it shot down off the coast of South Carolina on February 4, discovering a debris field spanning some 1,500 square meters, or about 15 footballs. Field by 15 football fields.
China has said it was a civilian airship conducting meteorological research, but the saga has further strained ties between the world’s two biggest economies.
Since then the US has shot down three additional objects over North America, the latest being downed over Lake Huron on Sunday. It was not clear whether the objects, which were flying very low and very small in size, belonged to China or to earlier balloons.
The mystery has stoked public interest and dismay from lawmakers, with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin telling reporters on Monday that crews from the three most recent incidents have yet to find any debris.
Announcing a new interagency team to study these objects, the White House said on Monday that they did not pose a threat to people on the ground, send no communication signals, and have no mobility or propulsion capability. Was.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told the briefing that the US military is using a wide range of radar data as it monitors North American airspace, and is taking a deeper look at more objects.
While US officials refrained from drawing any conclusions, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference on Monday that “there is some pattern.”
The recovery of electronics from the first downed balloon comes after Beijing accused the United States of flying high-altitude balloons over its airspace without permission more than 10 times since the beginning of last year.
“It is not a rare thing for US balloons to illegally enter other countries’ airspace,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular news briefing on Monday.
He said, “America should first consider itself and change its course instead of defaming other countries.”
Kirby denied the allegation on Monday. “We are not flying surveillance balloons over China,” he said.
At a regular news briefing on Tuesday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman declined to provide further details about the alleged incursions on its airspace, saying it was up to Washington to clarify them.
The initial discovery of Chinese surveillance balloons led to the cancellation of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing at the last minute, and it remains unclear if and when it will be rescheduled.
“We stand ready for dialogue, discussion, and rescheduling of our trip to Beijing when circumstances are appropriate,” Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said at a news conference on Monday.
Meanwhile, according to The Paper, a Chinese news outlet, China is monitoring an unidentified flying object over its territory.
In a report on Sunday, it said maritime authorities in the eastern province of Shandong had alerted local fishermen that they were preparing to shoot down the object, which was found above the water near the coastal city of Rizhao.
The report did not provide details about the object, such as officials believe it may have originated, and Wang did not take any questions from reporters about it.