UK to Review Airspace Security After Chinese Spy Balloons Found Over Americas

A high altitude balloon floats over Billings, Mont., on Feb. 1, 2023. Larry Mayer/The Billings Gazette via AP

The UK is launching a security review in light of the Chinese spy balloons found over the Americas, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Feb. 12.

It comes after the United States sanctioned six Chinese entities involved in aiding Beijing’s surveillance balloon programs.

“The UK and her allies will review what these airspace intrusions mean for our security,” Wallace said.

“This development is another sign of how the global threat picture is changing for the worse.”

Balloons and Flying Objects

In the past nine days, U.S. and Canadian military have shot down a Chinese spy balloon and three other unidentified flying objects in North American airspace.

Another Chinese balloon was found flying over Latin America on Feb. 3. The current status of the balloon is unclear.

On Feb. 4, U.S. military jets shot down a 200-foot-tall high-altitude surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean after the balloon traversed from Alaska to across Canada and the United States.

A senior defence official told reporters that the balloon had flown near “many potential sensitive sites.”

President Joe Biden said he had considered shooting the balloon down earlier but decided against the move over fears of harming civilians on the ground.

Map shows path of suspected spy balloon. AP Photo

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning has acknowledged that both that balloon over the United States and the one in Latin America were from China but insisted they were civilian weather balloons.

A U.S. State Department official told The Epoch Times that high-resolution imagery showed that equipment on the first balloon was “clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment onboard weather balloons.”

The other flying objects of unknown origin were downed in the past three days.

On Feb. 10, a U.S. F-22 jet shot a missile to take down an unknown flying object off the coast of Alaska.

The object was about the size of a small car and didn’t appear to have maneuverable capability, in contrast with the first balloon that was shot down on Feb. 4.

On Feb. 11, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a joint venture between the United States and Canada to provide air defence for both countries, dispatched two F-22 jets from a military base in Anchorage, Alaska, and shot down an unidentified cylindrical object over Yukon, Canada, with an AIM-9X missile.

On Feb. 12, the U.S. military scrambled an F-16 jet to shoot down an “octagonal structure” over Lake Huron.

Senior U.S. officials said improved surveillance capabilities have allowed the Biden administration to retroactively detect “multiple instances” of spy balloons passing by during President Donald Trump’s time in the White House.

Trump denied those claims, saying that it “never happened.”

Kash Patel, who served as the Pentagon’s chief of staff to Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller under Trump, said there wasn’t a “shred of intelligence” shared among senior government officials suggesting that a Chinese spy balloon flew or was going to fly across the United States during the Trump administration.

Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover a suspected Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon that was downed by the United States over the weekend over U.S. territorial waters off the coast of Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Feb. 5, 2023. U.S. Fleet Forces/U.S. Navy photo/Handout via Reuters

The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously voted on Feb. 9 to condemn the Chinese regime’s use of a spy balloon over the United States.

The U.S. Department of Commerce sanctioned on Feb. 10 five Chinese companies and a Chinese research institute, which were found to be involved in helping with “aerospace programs including airships and balloons and related materials and components” for the Chinese military.

Downing Street: Britain ‘Well Prepared’ to Protect Airspace

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak decline to comment on whether similar incidents have occurred in the UK’s airspace.

“We will do whatever it takes to keep the country safe,” he said.

“We have something called the quick reaction alert force which involves Typhoon planes, which are kept on 24/7 readiness to police our airspace, which is incredibly important.

“I can’t obviously comment in detail on national security matters, but we are in constant touch with our allies and, as I said, we will do whatever it takes to keep the country safe.”

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak leaves 10 Downing Street to attend Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, in London, on Jan. 25, 2023. Leon Neal/Getty Images

Transport Minister Richard Holden told Sky News that he believes “it is possible” that Chinese spy balloons have already been used over the UK.

“It is also possible, and I would think likely, that there would be people from the Chinese government trying to act as a hostile state,” he said, noting that the UK has to be “realistic about the threat these countries pose to the UK.”

Asked about Holden’s comments, the official spokesman at Downing Street said he couldn’t comment on security issues.

He said the UK is “well prepared to deal with threats to our airspace, as the prime minister highlighted,” noting that threats would be judged on a “case-by-case basis.”

Asked whether the prime minister agreed with Holden’s description of Beijing as a “hostile state,” the spokesman said the characterisation will be considered when updating the Integrated Review.

“As we’ve said on a number of occasions, China poses a systemic challenge to our values and interests,” he said. “It is a challenge that grows more acute as it moves to even greater authoritarianism.”

Pressed on whether the UK government is likely to change the Chinese regime’s designation, the spokesman said, “You’ll see our position when it is published.”

He confirmed that Sunak agrees with the view that the Chinese regime is becoming more authoritarian.

“It has been our long-standing position,” the spokesman said. “I think we’ve seen from some of the action from China on a number of areas, be it militarily or on freedom of speech, these are concerning actions which we seek to raise with our Chinese counterparts.”

Andrew Thornebrooke, Marnie Cathcart, Katabella Roberts, Jan Jekielek, and PA media contributed to this report.