hello and welcome to bbc news. washington has accused beijing of acting irresponsibly after a chinese surveillance balloon was detected over the united states. the us secretary of state, antony blinken, has postponed a much anticipated trip to beijing over the incident. china says the balloon is a civilian airship which had deviated from its planned route. however, us defence officials argue the balloon, seen above sensitive areas in recent days was a high altitude surveillance device. our security correspondent gordon corera reports. i.have no idea what this thing is. a strange object in the sky, filmed by a member of the public in rural montana. and for those of you who think this mightjust be the moon, it is not the moon, the moon is off to my right i can see it. it s not the moon, nor a ufo, but, us officials claim, a chinese spy balloon. it seemed so brazen and just so insane to me, it wasjust, like, this thing is so visible. and it s now sparked a major diplom
welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. in the last hour, the pentagon has confirmed that they are seeing reports of a balloon transiting over latin america. brigadier general patrick ryder says that the us department of defense now assesses that it is another chinese surveillance balloon. this comes after washington accused beijing of acting irresponsibly after a first such balloon was detected over the united states. secretary of state antony blinken postponed a much anticipated trip to beijing over the incident. china says that balloon was a civilian airship which had deviated from its planned route. in a moment, i ll get the latest from our correspondent on the second balloon sighting. first, this report from gordon correra. i.have no idea what this thing is. a strange object in the sky, filmed by a member of the public in rural montana. and for those of you who think this mightjust be the moon, it is not the moon, the moon is off to my right
the pentagon has confirmed that they are seeing reports of a balloon transiting over latin america. brigadier general patrick ryder says that the us department of defense now assesses that it is another chinese surveillance balloon. this comes after washington accused beijing of acting irresponsibly after a first such balloon was detected over the united states. secretary of state, antony blinken postponed a much anticipated trip to beijing over the incident. china says that balloon was a civilian airship which had deviated from its planned route. we ll have more on the second balloon sighting in a moment, but first this report from gordon correra. i.have no idea what this thing is. a strange object in the sky, filmed by a member of the public in rural montana. and for those of you who think this mightjust be the moon, it is not the moon, the moon is off to my right i can see it. it s not the moon, nor a ufo, but, us officials claim, a chinese spy balloon. it seemed so br
welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. the pentagon has confirmed that they are seeing reports of a balloon transiting over latin america. brigadier general patrick ryder says that the us department of defense now assesses that it is another chinese surveillance balloon. this comes after washington accused beijing of acting irresponsibly after a first such balloon was detected over the united states. secretary of state antony blinken postponed a much anticipated trip to beijing over the incident. china says that balloon was a civilian airship which had deviated from its planned route. we ll have more on the second balloon sighting in a moment, but first, this report from gordon corera. i.have no idea what this thing is. a strange object in the sky filmed by a member of the public in rural montana. and for those of you who think this mightjust be the moon, it is not the moon, the moon is off to my right i can see it. it s not the moon, nor a ufo, bu
chinese spy balloon is clurntly crossing latin america. something so unexpected to be what it is, where it is, that it left people asking questions like this. what planet is that? actually, that s a good question. it s not mars or venus. the balloon is the size of three buses. and surveillance equipment spotted yesterday over montana, drifted across nebraska and then into the midwest today. floating at about 60,000 feet apparently following the prevailing winds. in a moment, we ll take a look at where it could be heading next. today, china said it was, quote, civilian airship, a vehicle gone astray, and secretary blinken postponed his upcoming trip to beijing. any country that has its air space violated in this way would respond similarly, and i can only imagine what the reaction would be in china if they were on the other end. in the meantime, the pentagon is not ruling anything out when it comes to shooting it down. at this stage, what i can tell you is again, we