The Latest Breaking News on Chinese balloon ‘did not collect any information’, Pentagon says

Taiwan has not spotted any surveillance balloons from China in its vicinity, the island's defence ministry said on Tuesday, as a dispute between China and the United States over spy balloons triggers worries about rising military tensions.

HONG KONG — One of the Chinese entities blacklisted by the United States for alleged links to a global espionage balloon program is part of a state-owned conglomerate that develops products including anti-drone systems and blimps.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is considering a meeting with Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, at a security conference later this week, people familiar with the matter said, in what would be their first face-to-face talks since an uproar over a Chinese balloon led to a new…

Administration officials acknowledge that there was no indication that three low-altitude objects shot down in recent days were being used for surveillance purposes.

Over the past week, the US has realised and revealed that an active fleet of Chinese spy balloons has been operating across the northern hemisphere for several years.

When US Secretary of State Antony Blinken this month called off his trip to Beijing, he chose his words carefully. China's launch of a spy balloon on a high-altitude journey over the United States was unacceptable and irresponsible, he said, but he was postponing -- not cancelling -- his visit.

The White House hits back at Beijing's claims about US high-altitude balloons flying over China's airspace without permission more than 10 times, as it dismisses any connection between the mysterious flying objects and alien activity.

The shootdowns came in steady succession over the weekend, after alarms were raised in early February over an object spotted over Montana.

Dr Patrick Bury, Senior Lecturer in Security at the University of Bath, and a former NATO analyst and Captain in the Royal Irish Regiment, answers the key questions on the escalating situation

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