In the first two weeks of February, Washington sent U.S. fighter jets to shoot down four objects flying over North America, including what it insisted was a Chinese "spy balloon" that had entered U.S. airspace on a mission of intelligence collection.

Despite Beijing's repeated clarifications that the entry of the unmanned Chinese civilian airship into U.S. airspace was an "entirely unintended, unexpected and isolated" event caused by force majeure, the U.S. resorted to "the most advanced U.S. weapons systems" – as The Washington Post has termed – to eliminate the object that its Pentagon had said "does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground."

Claiming the incident a violation of its sovereignty, Washington prefers to frame itself as a victim of spying. However, data and reports present a different picture.

Targeting Beijing

Since it was established in early 1950s, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has targeted Beijing as one of its top priorities in operating its spying machine.

"The methods by which the U.S. can eavesdrop on Chinese communications range to use of undersea platforms – like submarines – to a variety of antenna systems on the ground up to satellites up to 24,000 miles in space," Jeffrey T. Richelson, an intelligence historian who has written extensively on the U.S. eavesdropping capabilities, told NBS news in June 1996, according to Federation of American Scientists.

"Overall, it's a multibillion-dollar effort, and China is a major target," said Richelson.

For decades, Washington has made unrelenting efforts to spy on China. In June 2022, the Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed that the U.S. has deployed many military aircraft and warships in the South China Sea on a regular basis and its reconnaissance aircraft have electronically impersonated civil aircraft of other countries there time and again.

Citing statistics from institutions with professional knowledge, the ministry said that the number of the U.S. close-in military reconnaissance missions against China has more than doubled compared with a decade ago.

In September 2022, China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center released an investigation report on how NSA launched cyber-attacks against the Northwestern Polytechnical University.

By controlling key infrastructure facilities in China and infiltrating into the university's internal network by using servers in other countries, the NSA's Office of Tailored Access Operation had been able to steal sensitive data and information of people with sensitive identities.

In the aftermath of the recent airship incident, China has also revealed that the U.S. has released a large number of high-altitude balloons from its territory, which have continuously circled the globe and illegally flown over China's airspace, including Xinjiang and Tibet, more than 10 times since last May.

The amount of coverage by U.S. cable news on the saga has made some historians find it difficult "to resist laughing out loud at the whole affair."

John Delury, a U.S. historian of Cold War espionage, wrote in Foreign Policy last week that covert U.S. intrusions into Chinese airspace were common for decades.

"Americans should know their own history of surveillance and subversion to maintain a degree of humility while calling out Beijing for violation of sovereignty and lack of transparency," said Delury.

No. 1 spy empire

Over the years, thanks to its advantages in technology, the U.S. has been engaged in massive, non-discriminate wiretapping and secret theft operations globally.

As early as the late 1950s and early 1960s, before the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft and spy satellites came into service, the U.S. Air Force had developed reconnaissance balloon programs known as WS-119L and WS-461L for the mission of collecting intelligence over Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

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

Snowden also disclosed that a U.S. surveillance program codenamed Stateroom ordered the installment of secret intelligence equipment in some 100 foreign diplomatic embassies and consulates in other countries for spying.

Permeating through every part of the world, the U.S. surveillance network also targets its allies.

In May 2021, Denmark's national broadcaster DR News reported that the Danish Defense Intelligence Service had given the NSA open internet access to spy on targeted heads of state, as well as Scandinavian leaders, top politicians, and high-ranking officials in Germany, Sweden, Norway and France, including then former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

After a U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter fired one AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to shoot down the Chinese civilian airship, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, criticized the move as a "trigger-happy overreaction."

"The U.S. knows how many surveillance balloons it has sent into the skies in the world," said Wang. "It's quite clear to the global community which country is the No.1 spy empire in the world."

Read more:

Why is balloon incident a political farce?

(Cover: A sniper is on guard in Highland Park, Illinois, U.S., July 7, 2022. /Xinhua)