Global fallout over China’s ‘spy balloon program’ widens
in the United States has spread, and the event is no longer seen as a mere spat between two superpowers, with Washington sharing intelligence with allies and partners around the world on Beijing’s purported global surveillance balloon program.
The Biden administration said that more than 40 countries across five continents had been targeted, and spent the past week sharing its knowledge of the program via briefings in Washington and US embassies abroad. While the outreach could be viewed as the US trying to convince other countries to pick a side in the ongoing saga, analysts said the facts of the case firmly place the ball in China’s court to present its side. Mr Neysun Mahboubi, a research scholar at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Study of Contemporary China, told The Straits Times: “The burden is far more on Beijing to explain its program to the world.” Said Stimson Center senior fellow Yun Sun: “Other countries might feel the US is trying to force them to pick a side, but I think that should not distract people from the key question: Does the Chinese balloon, or this type of behaviour, represent a threat to their national security? That question arises regardless of what the US may or may not say.” “The Chinese have all the opportunities to present their case, their evidence and their story. If they choose not to do that, one can only wonder why,” she added.“I am not aware of any ‘fleet of balloons’. That narrative is probably part of the information and public opinion warfare the US has waged on China,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Mao Ning said at a regular briefing on Thursday. She added: “As to who is the world’s number one country of spying, eavesdropping and surveillance, that is plainly visible to the international community.” Ms Sun, however, said that the outreach was valuable for other countries to understand the depth of the Chinese surveillance programme and what it meant to them. Mr Neysun also reckoned that Washington had appeared genuinely surprised by the scope and scale of Beijing’s surveillance programme. “Setting aside some of the more extreme rhetoric by certain members of Congress last week, I think the administration’s overall response has been appropriately measured and serious,” he said. The US has so far not demanded that other countries take action against China over the balloon programme, in contrast to its rallying of other nations to join in its chip export controls against Beijing, or its call for more to join a global sanctions regime against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.for supporting Beijing’s surveillance programme, calling it a threat to its national security.Freak accident or calculated move? What China’s spy balloon over the US may be about Washington has released details on the balloons, from drift patterns to camera capabilities, to refute China’s claims that they are used for meteorological purposes. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Washington was sharing its information “because the United States was not the only target of this broader programme, which has violated the sovereignty of countries across five continents”. The outreach is part of a recent pattern in American diplomacy of calling attention to potential Chinese threats to the national security of other countries, such as the threat posed by China’s chip ascendancy to the strategic interests of the Netherlands and Japan. America’s declassification and sharing of information also echoes its intelligence sharing in response to the Russian military build-up on Ukraine’s borders in the weeks before its full-scale invasion.Said Ms Sun of the motives behind America’s outreach efforts: “The balloon offers a perfect opportunity for the US to demonstrate to other countries the severity of Chinese surveillance around the world. There is hard evidence, and the US certainly would not miss the opportunity.” Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during his visit to Washington on Wednesday that the balloon over America confirmed a pattern of Chinese behaviour. “We see that China over the last years has invested heavily in new military capabilities, including different types of surveillance and intelligence platforms,” he said at a press conference with Mr Blinken. “We need to be aware of the constant risk of Chinese intelligence, and then step up what we do to protect ourselves,” he added. Japan has also said it is coordinating with the US and analysing unidentified balloon-like objects spotted above its territory in previous years.
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