As bilateral tensions rise in the wake of a Chinese balloon that was shot down by American fighter jets after crossing the entire US, China has accused the US of “illegally” flying high-altitude balloons into its airspace more than ten times since January 2022.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry made the unsupported accusation less than a day after declaring that it was getting ready to shoot down an unidentified object that was flying close to its eastern coast.

Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the ministry, asserted during a regular news conference on Monday that it is “common for US balloons to illegally enter other countries’ airspace.”

“American high-altitude balloons have illegally entered Chinese airspace more than ten times without the consent of relevant Chinese authorities since just last year,” Wang claimed.

It’s unclear why China held back on disclosing this information up until now or whether it took action when the alleged intrusions allegedly took place.

Wang also charged that the US regularly dispatched warships and aircraft to conduct close-range reconnaissance against China, claiming that they did so a total of 657 times in 2017 and 64 times in January this year in the South China Sea.

The US is “without a doubt the world’s largest surveillance habitual offender and surveillance empire,” Wang said, adding that the US has “for the longest time abused its own technological advantages to carry out large-scale and indiscriminate wiretapping and theft of secrets from all over the world, including from its allies.”

When asked about the Chinese company that owns the balloon that was shot down by American fighter jets on February 4, Wang made the remarks.

The spokesperson also criticized the US Commerce Department’s decision to add six Chinese firms linked to Chinese military aerospace programs to its Entity List on Friday, preventing them from acquiring US technology without permission.

China is adamantly opposed to this and is deeply unhappy with it. We will take the necessary steps to firmly protect the legal rights and interests of Chinese institutions and businesses, said Wang.

He charged that the US had “hyped and exaggerated” the circumstance and was “using it as a pretext to illegally sanction Chinese enterprises and institutions.”

‘Unidentified flying object’ near China’s coast

State-run news outlet The Paper reported that maritime authorities in China’s Shandong province said Sunday that they had spotted a “unidentified flying object” above waters close to the port city of Rizhao and were “preparing to shoot it down.”

Maritime authorities in the nearby port city of Qingdao sent a text message to fishing vessels warning crews to be cautious and help with debris recovery efforts if they could.

“If debris lands close to your boat, kindly assist in taking photos to gather proof. In the message cited by The Paper, the marine development department of Qingdao’s Jimo district requested assistance in salvaging the object if the circumstances permitted.

The type of object, potential origin, and altitude of the object were not described in the report.

Chinese authorities and state media had not provided an update as of Monday afternoon local time, and it is unknown if the object has already been removed.

However, despite the lack of information, the mysterious object has generated hundreds of millions of views on China’s tightly regulated social media. Numerous users listened to state media reports on how the US handled the Chinese balloon.

According to sources who spoke to CNN, the device was a component of a fleet of Chinese surveillance balloons that the US intelligence community only recently began monitoring. According to officials, the US has so far discovered alleged Chinese balloons over 40 nations on five continents.

Beijing maintains that the object was an airship used for civilian research that got lost. Chinese nationalists made fun of the US over its reaction to a “weather” balloon on social media, in stark contrast to the US where the balloon caused significant public concern.

In shooting down the Chinese balloon, the US was accused by China’s Foreign Ministry of “overreacting” and “seriously violating international practice,” while the Chinese Defense Ministry stated that it “reserves the right to use necessary means to deal with similar situations.”

Beijing maintains that the object was an airship for civilian research.

Chinese social media was buzzing with anticipation on Sunday night as many users awaited the removal of the object floating off China’s coasts. Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, featured a top comment that read, “Thanks to the demonstration made by the US, we must report it in a high-profile manner when we shoot down (the object).”

The unidentified object was the top trending topic on Weibo by Monday morning, with two associated hashtags receiving more than 900 million views. Many people – some with a sense of disappointment – questioned why there had been no official update on the shoot down from the authorities.

A comment questioned, “Why is there still no exciting news after waiting all night?”