China said on Monday (Feb 13) that US high altitude balloons had flown over its airspace without permission more than 10 times since the beginning of 2022, drawing a swift denial from Washington.
China's accusation widened a dispute with the US that began after the US military shot down on Feb 4 after what it says was a Chinese spy balloon, whose appearance prompted top US diplomat Antony Blinken to cancel a trip to Beijing designed to ease tensions.
Since then, the US military has shot down three other flying objects over North America, most recently on Sunday, when an octagonal object was downed over Lake Huron, the Pentagon said
Since last year, the US' high-altitude balloons have undergone more than 10 illegal flights into Chinese airspace without the approval of the relevant Chinese departments," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular briefing in Beijing in response to a question.
Wang did not specifically describe the balloons as military, or for espionage purposes and did not provide further details.
The White House promptly denied China's accusation, which National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson dismissed as an effort at damage control by Beijing.
China's assertion comes after the US shot down what it called a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Feb 4 after it had drifted across the continental US for days.
China said the balloon was a civilian research craft that had mistakenly blown off course and accused the US of overreacting.
Chinese foreign ministry's Wang said he had no information on the latest three objects shot down by the US.
Gregory Poling, an Indo-Pacific maritime security expert at Washington's Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said he was not aware of any US use of balloons for surveillance, although he added "I suspect none of us would know for sure."
He noted that China considers the airspace over Taiwan, over territory it disputes with Japan, and much if not all of the South China Sea to be its territorial air space.
