“A Chinese unmanned airship drifted into the airspace of the United States due to force majeure and was shot down by the U.S. side, which has attracted the attention from the Belgian media. In fact, the so-called “airship incident” is nothing more than a deliberate hype-up and a political farce put on by the United States.

The Chinese unmanned airship is not a spy balloon. The Chinese side has made it clear that the airship is of a civilian nature and used for meteorological and other research purposes. The World Meteorological Organization has also noted recently that weather balloons are an important part of the Global Observing System which underpins weather forecasts and climate monitoring. Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course and drifted into the United States. This is entirely an unexpected, isolated incident caused by force majeure.

The Chinese side has made the information available to the U.S. side shortly after verification and made clear its readiness to continue communicating with the U.S. side and properly handle this unexpected situation caused by force majeure. The U.S. Department of Defense stated itself that the balloon did not pose a military or physical threat to people on the ground. In such a context, ignoring China’s good will and the basic facts, the United States still brazenly shot it down by firing a missile from an advanced fighter jet, in violation of the Chicago Convention and multiple basic principles of international law. This is completely overreacting. Furthermore, the United States has hyped up and escalated the matter. It groundlessly accused China of having a “fleet of balloons”, and blacklisted six Chinese companies in relation to the so-called balloon surveillance program. What the United States has done is nothing but trying to serve its domestic political agenda, find excuses for its unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction, and contain and oppress China. The Chinese side thus expresses its strong indignation and resolute opposition.

As a matter of fact, it is the United States who is the No.1 surveillance country and has the largest spy network in the world. Europe and other members of the international community can certainly tell from their own experience. The U.S. National Security Agency spied on leaders of Germany, Sweden, Norway, France and other countries. Since last year, U.S. high-altitude balloons have flown over Chinese airspace over ten times without authorization from China. The United States knows how many surveillance balloons it has sent into the skies in the world. It is quite clear to the global community which country is the No.1 spy empire in the world. 

The China-U.S. relationship is of significant importance to the world. The U.S. side needs to stop its political manipulation by using the “unmanned airship incident”, stop attacking and slandering China, and acknowledge and resolve the damage the incident has done to China-U.S. relations. We hope that European media will not be misled by disinformation, and view the relevant incident with an objective, rational and just attitude.”

https://www.eureporter.co/eu-2/belgium/2023/03/01/the-airship-incident-is-a-political-farce-put-on-by-the-united-states/