BBC: Japan Could Shoot Down Chinese Spy Balloons – If They Pose a Threat

Chinese spy balloons have flown over Japan – and the country says it’s ready to shoot them out of the sky if necessary, BBC reported Tuesday.

Yuko Murakami, a spokesman for the Japanese defense ministry, said the armed forces were "taking all precautions to monitor the situation on a daily basis," and would resort to arms to protect the "lives and property of people in the territory of Japan," according to a BBC Panorama report. 

The Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Using satellite imagery and artificial intelligence, Panorama reporters were able to verify spy balloon flights over Japan and Taiwan dating to 2021.

The controversy over Chinese spy balloons erupted in January when the U.S. shot down a lighter-than-air craft over the Atlantic Ocean after it had drifted across the mainland, pausing to linger over American military bases. 

Balloon-related tensions surfaced again last week after President Joe Biden said that his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping had been taken by surprise by America’s response to the floating surveillance pods – earning Biden a strong rebuke from China’s foreign ministry. 

Panorama asked Synthetaic, an artificial intelligence company, to analyze vast amounts of satellite imagery of the Pacific skies, and found what it said were “multiple images of balloons crossing East Asia.” 

One balloon, seen passing over Japan in September 2021, appeared have been launched from deep inside China, south of Mongolia, Synthetaic founder Corey Jaskolski told Panorama.

Two photographs taken by Taiwan's weather service appeared to show a balloon over the capital, Taipei, also in September 2021.

Japan and Taiwan are close U.S. allies, and Japan hosts American military bases. The Japanese embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to queries about the defense spokesman’s claim that Japan’s armed forces were ready to shoot down future spy balloons.

China continues to assert that the balloon shot down by the U.S. was a weather instrument. American officials said it bristled with antennas capable of intercepting communications. 

John Culver, a former East Asia analyst at the CIA, told Panorama that the spy balloon program is a “continuing effort dating back at least five years," using aircraft "specially designed for these long-range missions," some of which have "apparently circumnavigated the globe."