The United States has illegally flown its high-altitude balloons over Chinese airspace more than 10 times without Chinese authorities' approval since the beginning of last year, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Monday.

It is not rare for U.S. balloons to enter the airspace of another country illegally, Wang told a regular press briefing in Beijing.

The U.S. has also frequently sent warships and aircraft to conduct close-in reconnaissance on China, which undermines China's sovereignty, he said.

The U.S. should change its way and do some soul-searching, instead of smearing or blaming the Chinese side, said Wang, in reference to Washington's recent claim about a Chinese "spy balloon."

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has repeatedly made clear that the entry of a Chinese civilian unmanned airship, which is for meteorological purposes, into U.S. airspace was due to force majeure and totally an accident.

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'The world's largest spy network'

At Monday's briefing, the Chinese spokesperson said that the U.S. has abused its technological advantages to carry out massive, indiscriminate wiretapping and stealing of secrets all over the world, including its allies, for a long time.

In 2013, former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden revealed that Washington had been spying on the email and cell phone communications of as many as 35 world leaders.

And in May 2021, Denmark's national broadcaster DR News reported that the NSA purposefully obtained data and thus was able to spy on targeted heads of state, as well as neighboring Scandinavian leaders, top politicians, and high-ranking officials in Germany, Sweden, Norway, and France.

"In fact, the U.S. is the world's largest country in surveillance and reconnaissance, with the largest spy network in the world," said Wang.

According to a report by Anzer, a cybersecurity information platform, the NSA had remotely stolen more than 97 billion pieces of global internet data and 124 billion phone records in 30 days.

Citing the report, Wang said that involved a huge number of citizens' privacy in different countries.

He also said a U.S. saildrone found in Namibian territorial waters recently is seens by local media as an American spy drone.

"Who is the world's largest spying empire? The international community sees a clear answer," said Wang.

(Cover: A file photo of Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. /CFP)