Former U.S. President Donald Trump denied Sunday that several Chinese surveillance balloons had flown over U.S. territory during his tenure, as several Biden Administration officials had claimed in recent days.
«China had too much respect for ‘Trump’ for this to happen, and it never happened. This is just false claims,» Trump has indicated through a message on his profile on his own social network, Truth Social.
«The Chinese would never have flown a blimp (balloon) over the United States if I were president,» Trump added, adding that he would have consulted with Chinese authorities if a negotiation was possible before shooting it down.
In addition to Trump, several former intelligence officials have refuted that there had been any such flights during the country’s former leader’s tenure. «I know of no balloon flights conducted by any power over the United States during my tenure, and I had never heard of that happening before I joined in 2018,» former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton has asserted.
These statements have been made after several Biden officials maintained that this situation had occurred several times in previous years, specifying that at least three of the flights had occurred during Trump’s term and a fourth at the beginning of the current administration, «although never during this period of time.»
In fact, Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder maintained last Thursday that the Chinese balloon did not represent «a military or physical threat», while indicating that «instances of this type of balloon activity have been previously observed in recent years», according to a Defense Department statement.
The balloon was first spotted last Tuesday over Montana and crossed the country to the east coast, arriving this Saturday to the Atlantic, where it has been finally shot down. Senior Pentagon officials had warned of the risk of shooting down the balloon over land because of the danger of the debris causing damage.
In the aftermath, China’s Foreign Ministry has expressed its «firm dissatisfaction» with what it believes to be a «clear overreaction» by the United States following the downing of the suspected spy balloon and reserved the right to give «necessary responses».
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)