UK Official Says China May Have Already Launched Spy Balloons Over British Isles

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th February, 2023) UK Transport Deputy Minister Richard Holden said on Monday that China may have acted as a hostile state and launched spy balloons over the United Kingdom.

Earlier in the day, UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace announced a security review into the balloons incidents in the US.

"It's possible. It's also possible that - and I would think likely - that there will be people from the Chinese government trying to act as a hostile state. We saw it with Russia here in the UK with the Salisbury poisonings and other actions that they've taken," he said on air on Sky news while answering the question about the possible prior launch of such aircraft by China over the UK.

Holden also said that China was a "hostile state," and the government should be "aware of that and the way it acts and behaves," and called for a "really robust" response.

In early February, the United States detected and later shot down four unidentified flying objects, including an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon. The Biden administration alleged that it was designed to gather intelligence about US sensitive military sites. Beijing insists that the balloon was a mere meteorological device and entered the US airspace on accident, expressing protest over Pentagon's decision to shoot it down. Similar flying objects have reportedly been detected in other countries, including Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan.