WASHINGTON (Reuters) -There are no U.S. surveillance aircraft in Chinese airspace, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Monday, declining to specify when pressed by reporters on whether such aircraft operate in Chinese-claimed areas.
The U.S. government swiftly and repeatedly denied China’s accusation that U.S. high-altitude balloons had flown over its airspace without permission more than 10 times since the beginning of 2022.
China claims disputed waters in the East and South China Seas, where the U.S. military routinely operates. It also says the self-governed island of Taiwan is its territory.
“There is no U.S. surveillance aircraft in Chinese airspace,” Kirby reiterated at a White House press briefing when asked if United States was operating aircraft in Chinese-claimed airspace as opposed to over China’s internationally recognized territory.
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said separately that there are no U.S. government balloons over China.
“None. Zero. Period,” she said at a news conference in Washington with her Japanese and South Korean counterparts.
China claims vast swathes of the South China Sea, to which other countries, including Brunei, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, lay claim.
The United States supports a 2016 ruling under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that invalidated most of China’s claims to maritime rights in the South China Sea, and the U.S. military conducts what it calls freedom of navigation operations in disputed waters near atolls where Beijing has built military bases.
Those operations anger Beijing, which accuses Washington of damaging regional stability and stirring controversy over maritime disputes.
China’s accusation about balloons widened a dispute with the United States that began after the U.S. military on Feb. 4 shot down an object it called a Chinese spy balloon. The episode prompted top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken to cancel a trip to Beijing that had been designed to ease tensions.
Since then, the U.S. military has shot down three other objects over North America, most recently on Sunday, when an octagonal object was downed over Lake Huron, the Pentagon said.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Michael Martina and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Chris Reese, Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)
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