Spy balloon confirms ‘pattern of Chinese behavior’ that poses threat to NATO members, Stoltenberg says

WASHINGTON – The Chinese spy balloon that drifted across the US last week presents security challenges for NATO’s 30-member alliance in addition to other countries across the globe, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.

“The balloon over the US confirms a pattern of Chinese behavior where we see that China has invested heavily in recent capabilities, including several types of surveillance and intelligence platforms,” Stoltenberg said during a press conference in Washington, DC beside U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“We’d like to pay attention to the constant risk of Chinese intelligence and step up what we do to guard ourselves and react in a prudent and responsible way,” he said, adding that European countries have seen a rise in Chinese intelligence activities.

U.S. officials have long complained that Chinese firms are beholden to the People’s Republic of China and collect sensitive information on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army. The Chinese Communist Party has previously said that it doesn’t engage in espionage. 

Stoltenberg said China was build up its military and nuclear capabilities “with none transparency.”

“It’s attempting to claim control over the South China Sea and threatening Taiwan, attempting to take control of critical infrastructure, including in NATO countries, repressing its own residents and trampling on human rights and deepening its strategic partnership with Moscow,” he said. “So NATO allies have real concerns which we discuss today.”

Stoltenberg’s remarks come because the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard complete a recovery operation of the downed spy balloon roughly six miles off the coast of South Carolina. On Saturday, Biden gave the order to take the 200-foot-tall spy balloon out of the sky. The operation resulted in an F-22 fighter jet shearing a hole in the underside of the balloon with a sidewinder missile.

Pentagon spokesman U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called his Chinese counterpart on Saturday following the military mission. Chinese officials didn’t accept the decision.

Blinken said the U.S. intelligence community was studying the balloon and that the U.S. would proceed to update allies in addition to countries around the globe that could be victims of Chinese espionage.

“The US was not the one goal of this broader program, which has violated the sovereignty of nations across five continents,” Blinken said.

“In our engagements, we’re again hearing from our partners that the world expects China and the US to administer our relationship responsibly. That is precisely what we got down to do. We proceed to induce China to do the identical,” he added.

Last week, within the handful of hours before Blinken was set to travel to Beijing, the Biden administration announced that it was indefinitely postponing the trip. He was slated to satisfy together with his Chinese counterpart and potentially Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

“The presence of this balloon in our airspace is a transparent violation of our sovereignty in addition to international law and is unacceptable that this has occurred,” a senior administration official said on a call with reporters, adding that a diplomatic trip couldn’t happen under such conditions.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the U.S. will reconsider a visit to China at a later date and remained open to conversations with Beijing within the interim.