Second Chinese suspected spy balloon spotted over Latin America, US says

A Chinese spy balloon has been spotted over Latin America, the Pentagon said Friday, a day after a similar craft was seen in US skies, prompting the scrapping of a rare trip to Beijing by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The Pentagon said the first balloon was now heading eastwards over the central United States, adding it was not being shot down for safety reasons, AFP reported.

Later Friday, Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said: “We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America.”

“We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” he added, without specifying its exact location.

Moments before Blinken’s decision to cancel his trip — aimed at easing tensions between the two countries — China issued a rare statement of regret over the first balloon and blamed winds for pushing what it called a civilian airship into US airspace.

But US President Joe Biden’s administration described it as a maneuverable “surveillance balloon.”

In a telephone call with senior Chinese official Wang Yi, Blinken said he “made clear that the presence of this surveillance balloon in US airspace is a clear violation of US sovereignty and international law, that it’s an irresponsible act.”

Blinken said, however, that he told Wang “the United States is committed to diplomatic engagement with China and that I plan to visit Beijing when conditions allow.”

“The first step is getting the surveillance asset out of our airspace. That’s what we’re focused on,” Blinken told reporters.

“China is a responsible country and has always strictly abided by international law,” Xinhua quoted Wang as telling Blinken.

“We do not accept any groundless speculation and hype,” he said, calling both sides to “avoid misjudgments and manage divergence.”

On Saturday, the Chinese foreign ministry released a statement addressing Blinken’s announcement that his trip would not go ahead.

“Some politicians and media in the United States used the [balloon] incident as a pretext to attack and smear China,” it said.

The statement further added in regard to Blinken’s trip, which had been widely publicized in the United States: “As a matter of fact, neither China nor the United States has announced any visit.

“It is the United States’ own decision to release the relevant information and we respect that.”

Blinken would have been the first top US diplomat to visit China since October 2018, signaling a thaw following intense friction under former president Donald Trump.

Last month, Blinken said he would use the trip to help establish “guardrails” to prevent the relationship from escalating into all-out conflict.