China violated sovereignty of nations across 5 continents: Blinken

WASHINGTON: China has violated the sovereignty of not just the United States but of countries across five continents, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said, days after American fighter jets shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon.

Earlier this week, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman briefed diplomats from about 40 friendly nations, including India, Japan and Australia, over the Chinese surveillance balloon.

The huge balloon was shot down on by a US fighter jet on Saturday off the coast of South Carolina in the Atlantic Ocean. It had hovered over continental America for several days after entering the US airspace on January 30 in Montana.

Blinken’s statement comes even as Pentagon said there’ve been four previous instances of Chinese surveillance balloons flying over US territories.

China has acknowledged that the balloon was theirs but denied that it was for surveillance purposes rather for weather monitoring and that it had drifted off course.

Department of Defense Spokesperson Gen Pat Ryder, who told reporters that the operation to recover the debris is being carried out by the US Northern Command, said the US is aware there have been four balloons previously flown over US territory.

US, UK, Australia hold China-focused air drills

The United States, Britain and Australia carried out joint air drills on Wednesday over the Nevada desert and beyond as part of an effort to simulate high-end combat operations against Chinese fighter aircraft and air defenses.

US Air Force Colonel Jared J. Hutchinson, commander of the 414th Combat Training Squadron that runs Red Flag, said the annual drills were not tied to any recent events. On Saturday, a US fighter jet shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina, hiking tensions.

“(China is) just the pacing challenge that we train to so that we’re ready … We think that if we’re ready for China, we’re ready for anybody,” Hutchinson said, citing US policy.

At the heart of the drills was addressing the vast distances that the United States, Britain and Australia would contend with when operating across the Pacific, and improving inter-operability of the three countries’ air forces.

Air Commodore John Lyle, commander of the RAF’s Air Mobility Force, said the mission during the Red Flag drills would simulate bringing the air forces into “an area where there has been an invasion by a hostile country.”

“So our role will be to support the force to effectively proceed into the area that’s been occupied and to undertake targeting of key assets to allow us to degrade the enemy’s capabilities,” Lyle said, without mentioning China by name, or identifying what simulated area had been invaded.