On February 10, 11, and 12, the US shot down three objects that were flying over Alaska, Canada, and Michigan respectively. This came after the shooting down of the alleged Chinese weather balloon on Feb. 4.

The objects flying over Alaska and Canada were found to be flying at around 40,000 feet, while the one over Michigan was found to be flying at around 20,000 feet. The objects are also believed to be much smaller than the balloon shot down earlier this month, though without more information it is difficult to confirm what purpose these objects served.

The White House stated the objects were shot down for two reasons: they posed a risk to civilian commercial air traffic, and there was a risk that the objects were being used for surveillance, thus prompting the strike.

Chinese officials have continued to defend that the 1st balloon was simply for meteorological research and posed no threat to the US. Deputy Director of Chinese Foreign Ministry Renbin Wang further commented that “The U.S. should not have overreacted and abused the use of force, still less use the incident for political manipulation or to smear and attack China.”

“If America flew the same weather balloon or objects over China, China would have reacted similarly, so they are being a bit hypocritical,” Henry Hatridge (11), a Government and Politics student, said. “The new objects were unexpected however; I’m interested to find out if China also flew those objects as well.”