NOBODY NEEDS ANY MORE PROOF THAT THE COLD WAR IS ALIVE AND WELL.

The United States shot down this Saturday the Chinese balloon that had been flying over the country for several days, whose remains fell into the sea and are being recovered to learn details of a mission with which Beijing sought to “monitor strategic sites.”This was stated by the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd J. Austin, in a statement in which he confirmed that the balloon was shot down “successfully” by two combat planes, off the coast of South Carolina (east of the country).In a telephone conversation with the media, a high-ranking Defense Department official said the balloon was “seeking to monitor sensitive military sites.”

Thus, on its route over the country it passed near “many potentially sensitive sites”, something that “contradicts” the Chinese government’s explanation that it was a meteorological device.The Pentagon announced this past Thursday that it was following the movements of a Chinese “spy balloon” that was flying over the state of Montana (northeast US), where one of the three existing nuclear missile silo fields on US territory is located. .China admitted on Friday that the balloon belonged to it, although it assured that “it is a civil airship used for research purposes, mainly meteorological.” An explanation that, according to the United States, “lacks credibility.”

The Defense source described what happened as “an intolerable violation” of US sovereignty and assured that this “is not the only Chinese surveillance balloon operating in the Western Hemisphere.”In fact, he recalled, it has been observed that there is a balloon transiting through Central and South America, which “is another Chinese surveillance balloon.”All these balloons “are part of a fleet of Chinese balloons, developed to carry out surveillance operations, which have also violated the sovereignty of other countries”, an activity that is carried out “under the direction of the People’s Liberation Army”.After having stayed out of the matter until today, this morning Biden made his first reference to the subject: “We are taking care of it,” he said in statements to the media at an airfield in Syracuse (New York), while the US press was talking about movements military in the South Carolina area and the closure of three airports.Minutes after officially confirming the military action against the balloon, Biden briefly explained to the press that it was he himself who gave the order to shoot down the balloon as soon as it reached the sea and did not pose a danger to the population.According to the Defense statement, Biden on Wednesday gave his authorization to shoot down the surveillance balloon “as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to the lives of Americans in its path.”After “careful analysis,” US military commanders “determined that shooting down the balloon while on the ground posed an undue risk to people over a wide area because of its size, altitude, and the utility of its surveillance payload.”The Department of Defense developed options to shoot down the balloon “safely” over water and decided to finally carry out the action on Saturday, which “was taken in coordination with and with the full support of the Canadian government.”The remains of the globeThe high-ranking official of the Defense Department explained that the decision to wait a few days to shoot it down at sea, in addition to being necessary to protect the citizens who inhabit the area, “was beneficial” to learn more about the device and its goals.Multiple US Navy and Coast Guard vessels are in the area where the aircraft sank. The perimeter is secured and they are conducting search tasks to try to recover as much as possible.Horry County (South Carolina) police warned citizens that fragments may wash up on the beach.If found, citizens should alert authorities and never touch them as they are “part of a federal investigation.” “The rubble must not be touched, moved or lifted” they pointed out through social networks.The presence of this Chinese “spy balloon” in US airspace has triggered a diplomatic crisis between Washington and Beijing and has led to the suspension of the trip that Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, planned to make to China.