Chinese ‘spy balloon’ is featured in US congressional hearing about UFOs
- Subcommittee chairman cites incident as an example of a lack of governmental transparency or preparedness concerning unidentified aerial phenomena
- Several witnesses testify about experiences with possible UFO encounters and one, a former intelligence officer, says the US ‘absolutely’ possesses crashed spacecraft
The spy balloon incident that roiled US- China relations earlier this year was Exhibit A on Wednesday at a Congressional hearing about UFOs when the committee chairman used it as an example of the federal government’s lack of transparency and preparedness on the subject.
In his opening remarks, Representative Glenn Grothman, chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border and Foreign Affairs, demanded clarity from the White House on the government’s investigations into unidentified flying objects – or, as the Pentagon prefers, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) – the sightings of which have puzzled millions in the US and beyond for decades.
The response to the “Chinese spy balloon that violated US air space is one example of a government not prepared” for UAP, Grothman, a Wisconsin Republican, argued, saying that the administration’s description of events showed that it “continues not to be forthright” about the balloon and three other objects the US military shot down.
In late January, a giant balloon was spotted floating over North America. Chinese officials identified it as a meteorological balloon that had strayed off course, but US officials called it a spy balloon.
After allowing it to transit across the continent, the Pentagon had it shot down off the South Carolina coast in early February, retrieved the balloon and began an analysis of the vessel.
The incident caused a significant enough breach between Washington and Beijing that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelled a trip later that month to China, only taking it in June.
