White House: 3 Chinese balloons flew over the US in the Trump era

The spokesman for the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, assured this Monday that, during the Government of Donald Trump (2017-2021) at least three Chinese balloons flew over the United States.

“On at least three occasions, surveillance balloons from the People's Republic of China transited our airspace. I will say that, according to all the indications we have, that was for short periods, nothing like what we saw last week in terms of duration, ”he said in a meeting with the media.

The existence of these balloons was discovered during the Joe Biden government in circumstances that Kirby did not want to reveal and it is not clear that Trump knew about it at the time.

“I cannot speak of the awareness that the previous Administration had about these events. I can tell you that we discovered these flights after we got to the office and I am not going to go into details of how we did it,” he said.

Through social media, Trump said on Sunday that no Chinese "spy balloon" flew over the United States under his administration.

“Now they are publishing that China placed a balloon during the Trump Administration, to take the 'heat' (pressure) off Biden's slow fools,” said the former president, but China “has too much respect” for him for that to happen. happen, he added.

According to Kirby, after the find they communicated "with key officials of the Trump Administration", offered them briefings on the forensic analyzes they did and expressed their willingness to "walk them through" what they learned.

Kirby did not detail whether these officials accepted the invitation, although he confirmed that "those briefings have not yet taken place."

“This whole program from China is not new. It is something that they have been working on for many years and that they have tried to improve, ”she noted.

Trump and other figures from the Republican Party have criticized in recent days the slowness of the Biden government to eliminate the balloon. Shortly after it became known of its existence last Thursday, Trump demanded that it be shot down, despite the fact that the Pentagon recommended not doing so until the device reached the sea.