UK to launch security review over China spy balloons 2023

Britain will undertake a security review in the wake of the incursion of Chinese spy balloons into Western airspace, the Defence Secretary has said.
Ben Wallace will work with the US and other close partners to analyse intelligence and assess the dangers posed by the balloons.
The review will be used to help decide whether any changes need to be made to the surveillance of British airspace. MPs have warned that balloons may have already crossed over the UK, a possibility the Ministry of Defence has refused to rule out.
It comes amid increasing fears over the threat from China as the US on Sunday night shot down a fourth suspected spy balloon in just over a week.
On Sunday night, Mr Wallace said: “The UK and her allies will review what these airspace intrusions mean for our security. This development is another sign of how the global threat picture is changing for the worse.”

Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, is under mounting pressure to take a harder line on China. On Friday, Liz Truss is set to advise of the trouble from Beijing in her first public speech since quitting Downing Street.
Last week, the White House said Chinese balloons had been spotted over five mainlands – but didn’t reveal where.
The first balloon was spotted floating over service installations in North Carolina and shot down last Saturday.

A lower balloon was shot down over Alaska on Friday, followed by another bone on Saturday over the Canadian fiefdom of Yukon.
On Sunday, the US service said it had downed another unidentified object flying over Lake Huron, which divides the US state of Michigan and the Canadian fiefdom of Ontario.
China claimed it was preparing to shoot down an object near its seacoast, but gave no further information.
Mr. Wallace has preliminarily said that if one of the balloons was observed over the UK, he’d shoot it down.
Alicia Kearns, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs select committee, said “ British airspace is defended by an exceptionally quick response force, which has proved itself veritably able against unknown and hostile aircraft.

“ The US will partake with us and Five Eyes abettors its conclusions on the capabilities of the Chinese balloons, and at that point, an internal review of our capability to identify, track, disrupt, and destroy these balloons will be accepted. ”

The spy balloons are the rearmost development in the UK’s decreasingly fractious relationship with China.
Two times agone, Britain ordered 5G mobile networks to exclude technology from the Chinese establishment Huawei over security enterprises, and there are claims that the country’s Confucius Institutes are being used to spread Communist Party propaganda and an spy to scholars in British universities.

Last time, government departments were banned from installing Chinese CCTV outfits at “ sensitive spots ” due to public security enterprises. It came after a Hikvision camera caught also- Health Minister Matt Hancock embracing his nut in his office.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, prompted the government to stop “ fussing ” with Beijing, citing, as an illustration, the Foreign Office inviting the governor of Xinjiang fiefdom for a meeting indeed though he has been indicted of mortal rights abuses against Uighurs.

Sir Iain will take part in a kick outside the Foreign Office on Monday and has backed calls for Erkin Tuniyaz to be arrested if he sets the bottom in the country.
He prompted the government to “ come clean ” over whether spy balloons have been spotted over the UK, adding “ China looks at us and sees we’re weak. It’s ludicrous for Rishi Sunak to say when he’s standing for the leadership that he wants to characterize China as strategic trouble, but also say it’s just a strategic challenge. ”

Tobias Ellwood, the president of the Commons defense select commission, said that if Parliament was sitting he’d be raising a question on whether the balloons had been seen above the UK.
He said “ I want to know if this is what China is doing, what’s our response? This is intrusion and intelligence-gathering. There are some big questions to be asked across Nato. I would encourage the Government to give assurances that our skies are patrolled and that there’s no infiltration at high altitudes. ”
Mr. Ellwood also called on Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, to increase defense spending in the coming month’s Budget amid claims Mr. Wallace is asking for at least£ 10 billion further.
He said “ The defense commission advised a time ago that our fortified forces were now too small to meet our security scores, given the growing pitfalls on the horizon.
“ We’ve constantly called for an increase in defense spending but rather we’ve witnessed scything cuts to our ocean, land, and air means.
“ When the US service says we no longer have a league one army and Germany raises enterprises about us meeting our Nato scores, it’s time to stop being in denial. As the world becomes more dangerous we need to spend further on defense. ”