Canberra should be prepared for Beijing to use balloons to spy on Australia, experts warn, after the US military shot one down.
Canberra should be prepared for Beijing to use balloons to spy on Australia, experts warned, after the US military shot down what officials said was a Chinese intelligence-gathering craft that traversed the country for a week.
Former Australian Defence Department deputy secretary Peter Jennings said the US incident should be seen as a wake-up call for Canberra not to be lulled into a false sense of security when dealing with China. An official search was launched off South Carolina to retrieve debris from the balloon and its undercarriage which is believed to include solar panels, cameras and other sophisticated equipment. Officials reportedly described the balloon as being comparable to the size of three buses.
ASPI senior analyst Malcolm Davis said instrumentation visible in footage of the balloon confirmed beyond a doubt it was for intelligence gathering rather than meteorological research.“I haven’t seen any reports of similar sorts of incidents occurring in Australian airspace, but it could happen and the government doesn’t say anything,” he said. “My guess is the US authorities had to say something about it because so many people saw it from the ground.
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