Chinese 'spy' balloons spotted over Asia, new images reveal
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London: New evidence has emerged of China's "spy" balloon program, with recent reports indicating that these balloons have been observed flying over Japan and Taiwan.
Japan has confirmed the incursion of these balloons into its airspace and has expressed its readiness to take measures to shoot them down if necessary, according to the BBC.
Earlier this year, US-China relations faced a setback when an alleged Chinese spy balloon was shot down off the US coast.
China maintained that the balloon, which was spotted in northwestern US in late January, was a civilian airship used for scientific research, particularly in meteorology, and that it was an unintended and isolated incident.
However, John Culver, a former East Asia analyst for the CIA, revealed to BBC Panorama that this was not an isolated event but part of a continuing effort that dates back at least five years.
Culver noted that these Chinese balloons were specially designed for long-range missions and that some of them had seemingly circumnavigated the globe.
Collaborating with Synthetaic, an artificial intelligence company specializing in satellite data analysis, the BBC uncovered multiple images of balloons traversing East Asia.
Corey Jaskolski, the founder of Synthetaic, discovered evidence of a balloon crossing northern Japan in early September 2021, which had not been previously published. Jaskolski also believes that the origin of this balloon can be traced back to a launch site deep within China, south of Mongolia.
The presence of these spy balloons raises concerns, particularly given Japan's status as a close ally of the United States and its significant hosting of American forces compared to any other foreign country.
With inputs from agencies
