Japan’s defense ministry believes that Chinese spy balloons violated the nation’s airspace at least three times in recent years.
Numerous balloon-like objects have been reported throughout the world following the United States’ shooting down a Chinese spy balloon on Feb. 4.
Japan is among them, and “strongly suspects” Chinese surveillance balloons entered Japanese territory at least three times between 2019 and 2021, Japan’s defense ministry said in a Feb. 14 statement.
The Pacific nation has been probing past records for signs of incursion from China’s spy balloon program since the U.S. shootdown occurred.
Japanese Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters that such violations of its airspace were unacceptable, and said that Japan had called on China’s communist regime to verify the facts of the situation and make sure it does not happen again….