Rep. Adam Smith (Wa.), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said China “almost certainly” launched three objects shot down by the U.S. military in North American airspace in recent days.
“It’s almost certainly a case of the Chinese trying to come up with new or creative ways to spy on us,” Smith said of the aerial objects in an interview with USA Today.
But the White House on Tuesday said the U.S. hasn’t “seen any indication… that these three objects were part of the [People’s Republic of China’s] spy balloon program.”
The U.S. earlier this month shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon that had spent days floating over the country, including sensitive military sites.
From Friday to Sunday last week, American fighter pilots shot down three additional aerial objects — two over the U.S. and one above Canada.
The incidents heightened tensions between the U.S. and China, which has insisted the initial balloon found was a civilian weather device blown off-course, and opened up debate about U.S. aerial defense.
But though Smith said the U.S. needs to respond to the incidents and “block this avenue,” he stressed that the objects should not be a top concern to the American public.
“It’s not like they’re learning some deep dark secret that makes us extra vulnerable here… We definitely want to stop them from doing it, as we want to try and stop all efforts of surveillance on the U.S. by China or anybody else for that matter. But, no, I don’t think it’s something that the American public needs to worry a great deal about,” Smith told USA Today.