The United States admitted on Monday that it had still not identified the three mysterious flying objects it had shot down in recent days, while tension mounts with China over reciprocal accusations of espionage.
As a sign of the ambient uncertainty, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre thought it necessary to specify, at the start of her daily briefing on Monday, that the American authorities had "no indication of extraterrestrials or extraterrestrial activities".
For the rest, the American executive has above all let it be known that it knows nothing, through the voice of John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, attached to President Joe Biden.
"We're not sure whether or not they had surveillance capability, but we can't rule it out," he said of the "objects" shot down Friday over the Alaska (northwest), Saturday over the Yukon in northwestern Canada, and Sunday over Lake Huron in the northern United States.
Coming after the February 4 destruction of a Chinese balloon by the United States, which accuses Beijing of having a veritable "fleet" of spy aircraft around the world, these successive discoveries have fueled speculation of a surveillance operation. Chinese.
"One of the reasons why we see more of them is that we are looking for them more," said John Kirby in an attempt to answer them, explaining that after the Chinese ball affair, the United States had honed their radar capabilities.
Without it, “it is difficult to detect objects that are moving slowly at high altitude,” he said, noting that those shot down in recent days seemed to move with the wind, without propulsion system or piloting. .
The White House spokesman pointed out that what remains of them, after they were destroyed by missiles from fighter jets, fell back either into frozen Alaskan waters or into areas remote parts of Canada, i.e. in the depths of a lake, complicating recovery operations.
John Kirby also repeated that these mysterious objects did not present a military "threat", but that they could endanger civilian air traffic, which led President Joe Biden to give the order to shoot them down.
However, a few elements have leaked out. The first two "objects" destroyed were the size of a small car - while the Chinese balloon was as big as three buses - and flew at 12,000 meters. The one destroyed in the Yukon was, according to Ottawa, "cylindrical" in shape.
Then the Pentagon described the aircraft destroyed on Sunday as "octagonal", without a nacelle, moving slowly at an altitude of 6,000 meters.
John Kirby was careful not to draw a parallel between these "objects" and the Chinese balloon shot down on February 4, of which important parts of sensors and electronics were recovered as well as pieces of its structure, according to the army American.
"We knew exactly what it was. We saw it slowing down, maneuvering, trying to observe what we think were sensitive military sites," he said.
What China denies: it has admitted to owning the balloon, but describes it as a weather device having drifted involuntarily.
She made the same claim on February 6 about a balloon flying over Latin America.
Beijing is now referring its espionage charges to Washington.
“Since last year alone, American balloons have flown over (the territory of) China more than ten times without any authorization,” assured a spokesman for Chinese diplomacy, Wang Wenbin.
"It's not true! We're not doing that! It's absolutely not true!" John Kirby said Monday when interviewed by MSNBC.
Chinese media reported on Sunday that an unidentified flying object had been spotted off China's east coast and the military was preparing to shoot it down.
This further complicates relations between China and the United States, which compete for economic, technological and strategic domination of the world.
The head of the American diplomacy canceled on February 3 a trip to China, and Beijing refused a call between the American Minister of Defense and his Chinese counterpart.
"It should not be taken that all communications are cut off and that China and the United States are no longer talking to each other. We still have an embassy there. We still have the possibility of talking to senior Chinese officials," however, assured John Kirby on Monday.
burs-aue/ube/juf/lpa
14/02/2023 04:56:41 - Washington (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
