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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》China balloon ‘fleet’ is global: US
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, left, shakes hands with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the US Department of State in Washington on Wednesday. Photo: AP
AFP, WASHINGTON
The US on Wednesday said that suspected Chinese spy balloons like the one it shot down were part of a “fleet” that has spanned five continents, as NATO joined in voicing concern.
Pointing to global ramifications of the incident that has animated the country, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was giving data to allies as it assesses the recovered debris.
“We already shared information with dozens of countries around the world, both from Washington and through our embassies,” Blinken said.
“We’re doing so because the United States was not the only target of this broader program, which has violated the sovereignty of countries across five continents,” he told a joint news conference with visiting NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, speaking separately to reporters on Air Force One, described the balloons as part of a “fleet” and said they had been spotted around the world for several years.
A huge white balloon carrying sophisticated equipment traversed the continental US last week before US President Joe Biden ordered the military to shoot it down just off the east coast in the Atlantic.
China has said that the balloon was merely conducting weather research, but the Pentagon described it as a high-tech spying operation.
The balloon floated at an altitude far higher than most airplanes and crossed directly over at least one sensitive US military site.
Stoltenberg, whose visit to Washington followed a trip to Japan and South Korea, said the balloon showed the need for countries across the alliance to protect themselves.
“The Chinese balloon over the United States confirms a pattern of Chinese behavior where we see that China over the last years has invested heavily in new military capabilities,” Stoltenberg said.
“We’ve also seen increased Chinese intelligence activities in Europe. They use satellites, they use cyber and, as we’ve seen over the United States, also balloons. So we just have to be vigilant,” he said.
Stoltenberg also issued a new warning that China was drawing lessons from the war in Ukraine, which NATO countries have been supporting as it fights Russian invaders.
“What happens in Europe today could happen in Asia tomorrow,” Stoltenberg said, pointing to China’s pressure on Taiwan.
The Washington Post, quoting US officials, reported that the Chinese surveillance program has been run partly out of China’s southern island of Hainan.
Updating old technology, the balloons have been used to monitor the military assets of nearby rivals such as Taiwan, Japan and India, the newspaper said.
Biden, in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, said that his orders to shoot down the balloon showed that the US would not hesitate to act when needed.
However, he also stressed that the US did not want conflict with China.
The balloon episode led Blinken to postpone a trip to China in which he had hoped to work on easing tensions.
China, which voiced regret about the air intrusion, but later denounced the US decision to down it, responded to Biden that it would also “firmly defend” its interests.
US officials said they took measures to prevent the balloon’s instruments from collecting confidential information during its flight.
They say that the decision to wait until the balloon reached water was the only way to ensure the safety of people on the ground.
Biden’s Republican rivals say he should have ordered the balloon to be destroyed as soon as it was identified.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
