The US federal police have started examining the first parts of the balloon. However, the search for other parts is difficult.
The US Federal Police FBI has released new photos from the investigation of the alleged spy balloon from China. The recordings show, among other things, how employees of the authority in the sea are looking for wreckage off the coast of the state of South Carolina. The US military shot down the balloon there last Sunday.
The search area is a “large-scale scene,” said Eric Pokorak, who is involved in the analysis of the remains of the balloon, at a press conference on Thursday. So far, mainly parts of the balloon’s hood, some cables and only small parts of the electronics have been found. That could too Wetter affect the collection and transport of further parts in the coming days.
Biden: China violates international law
The authority emphasized that there is no information or evidence that contradicts previous statements by other US authorities about the balloon. The US government accuses China of wanting to spy on military installations. Beijing, on the other hand, spoke of a civil research balloon primarily for meteorological purposes. This was off course, the launch an “overreaction”.
According to US President Joe Biden, China violated international law by flying in US airspace. The incident does not represent a major security vulnerability, but it is “absolutely a violation of international law – it is our airspace,” Biden said in an interview with Telemundo on Thursday (local time). Referring to the launch of the balloon, he added: “And once it got into our airspace, we could do whatever we wanted with it.”
A high-ranking official at the US State Department also said on Thursday that China had targeted 40 countries on five continents with a fleet of spy balloons: “We know that China used these balloons for surveillance,” he emphasized in Washington.
The equipment in the balloon shot down off the US coast was also “clearly used for intelligence monitoring”. China, in turn, accused the US government of conducting an “information war” because of the ongoing allegations of espionage.
