Report: US tracks high-altitude balloon over Colorado

The US military is once again tracking a balloon over the western United States, a year after a Chinese spy balloon sparked a diplomatic crisis. The military has sent planes to investigate the situation, CBS News reported, adding that no threat has been determined. Like the spy balloon that invaded US airspace and slowly made its way across the US, the current balloon was spotted in Colorado.

The spy balloon that entered US airspace over Alaska in January eventually flew over a US military base in Montana. Only when it was over the Atlantic Ocean did the military shoot it down off the coast of South Carolina, citing the safety risks of shooting it down over land. That in turn led to Beijing promising countermeasures, further straining a relationship already beset by trade practices, tariffs, Taiwan, human rights and China’s ties with Russia before President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine launched.

Republicans criticized President Joe Biden for not calling it down sooner. The incident led to a period in which the military shot down other unidentified objects. The earlier incident forced Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a planned trip to China, criticizing it as an “irresponsible act.”

Biden said in June that he didn’t think “the leadership knew where it was, knew what was in it and knew what was going on,” calling it “more embarrassing than it was intentional.” He then met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November in an effort to put the US-China relationship on firmer footing.

The White House and Pentagon had no immediate comment. The balloon is carried east by the Jet Stream, which experienced near-record wind speeds last week, allowing a transatlantic flight on Virgin Atlantic to reach speeds of 800 miles per hour.

It’s a crossroads at a time when Biden already has his hands full with other foreign policy challenges. On Friday, he called on Republican leaders in the House of Representatives to let lawmakers re-vote on a stalled package to provide Ukraine with $60 billion. He met this week with the wife of murdered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

There are reports that Ukrainian troops are rationing ammunition as they face continued Russian attacks. And Israel’s war on Gaza is causing continued civilian casualties while creating political problems for Biden as he faces increasing primary tests.

Last year’s incident revealed information about a series of sightings. Some previous incidents date back to the Trump administration. Last year’s balloon incident preceded a series of shootings, starting with the downing of the Chinese spy balloon on February 4. According to a statement from NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the Federal Aviation Administration “detected a small balloon at an altitude ranging between 43,000 and 45,000 feet,” military.com reported.

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