China ‘detects object entering its airspace near port city and is preparing to shoot it down’

China is preparing to shoot down an unidentified object spotted flying over a port, according to reports.

The object has been spotted near the port city of Qingdao and an employee of the marine development authority of the city’s Jimo district said authorities are getting ready to take it down. The People’s Liberation Army of China has a naval base in Qingdao, according to Bloomberg.

The employee had not been told what the object was but did say that fishermen in the area had been warned to be careful. 

Reports about the mysterious object have been appeared on the Chinese government mouthpiece The Global Times and in social media posts on Weibo. 

It comes amidst heightened tensions between the US and China, after the US and Canada downed several high-altitude Chinese spy balloons discovered over North America this month.

The People’s Liberation Army of China has a naval base in Qingdao, where they China said an object was flying over and was going to be shot down

The Chinese port city of Qingdao. Chinese officials claim to have found an object flying over the city they plan to shoot down

The US government said one of the balloons, shot down off the coast of South Carolina, had contained spying equipment.  

Beijing fired back and said the balloon, which flew over the US for three days, had been weather equipment.  

A Montana congressman said on Saturday night that he had been told an unidentified object was spotted over his district, forcing the temporary closure of airspace – and the search for it would resume at daylight.

Federal agents ordered a closure of Montana airways in the hours after the object was shot down in Canada.  

Matt Rosendale, a Republican elected in 2020, said he had been briefed by the Department of Defense, while he was at a Lincoln Reagan dinner. 

Fighter jets were scrambled and airspace above Havre, a town of 10,000 people, 30 miles south of the Canadian border, was shut at 7:50pm before being reopened about 50 minutes later.

‘I’m at an event, a Lincoln Reagan dinner in Columbus, Montana right now,’ Rosendale told Fox News.

‘And DOD called me as I have been sitting here and started giving me briefings to tell me what was going on.

‘I clarified with them that this is actually the fourth balloon, OK.’

Chinese navy troops parade outside of a warship in the Chinese port city of Qingdao

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had ordered that the object be shot down when it breached Canadian airspace 

Earlier on Saturday, Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, confirmed an object had been shot down by US F-22s in Yukon, as part of a joint Canadian-US operation. 

Rosendale continued: ‘The first we shot down over the Atlantic. One was shot down before it entered into Alaska’s airspace. A third was shot down, Trudeau ordered over Canada. So now we’re talking about a fourth incident.’

He said he was told the Pentagon would follow the object, but were unable to shoot it down because it was dark.

‘DOD told me that they are going to be tracking the object – they can’t even say exactly what it is – they are going to track the object until it gets light again,’ he said.

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A Chinese spy balloon shot down by the US after it drifted across the continent

‘They don’t have the ability to put any more eyes on it with aircraft until it’s light again.

‘And then tomorrow morning we’ll be dealing with it.’

NORAD said a ‘radar anomaly’ was seen, but jets ‘did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits.’ 

‘NORAD will continue to monitor the situation,’ they added.

A fighter jet shot down an object which posed a ‘reasonable threat’ to civilian flights, floating at 40,000ft over Alaska on Friday.