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Chinese High-Altitude Balloons Also Used Over Indian Military Bases

Flag China Flag USA Flag Japan Flag Taiwan Flag India The Chinese balloon flying over the United States is getting headlines. The Chinese government has admitted it is their's but claim that it is civilian in nature and that the overflight is accidental. Another has been observed flying over Latin America with reports from Costa Rico and Colombia. There is very strong circumstantial evidence that these are military related 'spy balloons' and that there is a pattern of operation going back at least a year.

A virtually identical balloon has previously been observed high over an important naval base in India. And another, in June 2000, over Japan.

In February 2022 there was another possibly related incident, when USAF F-22 Raptors were scrambled to intercept a balloon off Hawaii. However images of the balloon do not appear online to confirm the Chinese design.

In January 2022 one of the balloons was photographed overflying Port Blair. This is a strategically located Indian Navy base in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean. At the time the object was shared on social media but its Chinese origin appears to have been speculation at best (at least in the public sphere).

Local media, Andaman Sheekha, reported on it on January 6 2022, posing the questions: "Now question is which agency has placed the object in the sky and why? If this object is not released by any agencies in Andaman then was it sent for spying? But in this age of ultra advanced satellites, who will use a flying object to spy? " - now we know it was Chinese.