By Khaleda Rahman, Marco Trujillo; Edited by News Gate Team
Chinese authorities are reportedly preparing to shoot down an “unidentified flying object” spotted in the skies near the eastern Shandong Province.
The object was discovered close to the city in Rizhao, according to a statement made by maritime authorities on Sunday, as reported by the state-run Global Times.
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According to the publication, police were getting ready to shoot the object down and warning nearby fisherman to stay careful.
It follows the downing of three objects by American F-22 fighter jets this month in the area over the United States and Canada.
One was shot down on February 4 off the coast of South Carolina, according to the authorities, and it was a Chinese spy balloon. According to U.S. officials, the balloon was a component of a wider Chinese surveillance program that has been running for several years and was outfitted to detect and gather intelligence signals.
Beijing, meanwhile, has argued that the blimp was accidently blown off course while gathering meteorological data as a civilian airship.
On Friday, a small car-sized object was fired out of the sky above secluded Alaska.
However, White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby claimed it was shot down because it was flying at roughly 40,000 feet and constituted a “reasonable threat” to the safety of civilian flights. Officials were unable to say where that object was from or what its objective was.
The wreckage is still being recovered, according to U.S. Northern Command, on sea ice close to Deadhorse, Alaska.
Then on Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a U.S. fighter jet had shot down an “unidentified object” that was flying high over the Yukon in northwest Canada.
The item was spotted over Alaska on Friday evening by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), according to Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder, and it entered Canadian airspace on Saturday.
President Joe Biden, who also gave the order to shoot down the object, called Trudeau and ordered the scrambling of the jets, according to Ryder. Following careful coordination between U.S. and Canadian authorities, a U.S. F-22 shot down the object on Canadian soil using an AIM 9X missile, according to Ryder.
Canadian Forces would “recover and study the object’s wreckage,” according to Trudeau.
Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said it was too soon to speculate where that object had originated but that it was “potentially similar” to the spy balloon shot down on February 4, “though smaller in size and cylindrical in nature.”
Newsweek has contacted China’s foreign ministry for comment.
By Khaleda Rahman, Marco Trujillo; Edited by News Gate Team
