US-China balloon dispute widens

Washington and Beijing traded accusations about alleged spy balloons yesterday as the United States and Canada scrambled to explain the three other objects the US military shot down over North American airspace during the weekend.
China widened its dispute with the United States yesterday, claiming that US high-altitude balloons had flown over its airspace without permission more than 10 times since the beginning of 2022. The White House promptly denied it.
The new claim came as American and Canadian officials struggled to explain the origin of three additional objects US fighter jets downed over North American airspace since February 4, when a Chinese balloon was downed off the South Carolina coast after drifting across the United States. Washington called that a surveillance balloon, while China has insisted it was a weather-monitoring craft blown badly off course. The incident prompted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel his scheduled trip to Beijing last week. Yesterday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that 10 US balloon flights last year were illegal, but did not describe the balloons as military or for espionage purposes.
A White House spokeswoman denied it, and accused China of violating the sovereignty of the United States and more than 40 other countries across five continents with surveillance balloons linked to its military.