Pentagon Tracking Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon; Refuses To Shoot It Down for Safety Reasons

The United States Pentagon has been monitoring a suspected Chinese spy balloon that has been located flying over the United States airspace for a couple of days.

However, Pentagon has decided against shooting the spy balloon due to risk of harming people on the ground, according to officials, according to Associated Press News.

The Pentagon noted that once the spy balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect sensitive information.

One senior defense official noted that Pentagon has "very high confidence" that the spy balloon was from China and was seen flying over sensitive sites to collect information.

Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, noted that the spy balloon allegedly from China is "currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial traffic."

Ryder added that the surveillance balloon does not present a military or physical threat to the people on the ground.

The Pentagon press secretary noted that there have been similar balloon activity in the past several years, adding that the U.S. government took precautionary measures to ensure it did not gather sensitive information.

Where Was The Chinese Spy Balloon?

The balloon was spotted in Montana. Montana was home to one of the United States' three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base.

Officials also noted that the object first flew over Alaska's Aleutian Islands, through Canada, and appeared over Montana.

The spy balloon is being tracked across the continental United States, with U.S. President Joe Biden deciding against "military options" due to the risk to civilians.

Another Pentagon senior official told ABC News that the spy balloon was the size of three buses and complete with a technology bay.

Ryder said that despite the spy balloon instance happening over the past few years, it showed to hang out for a longer period of time "this time around."

ABC News contributor, Retired Col. Steve Ganyard, speculated that the balloon was an experiment gone wrong.

The retired colonel went on to say that spy balloons are not controlled after their release and are normally equipped with a mechanism to deflate over an open area, adding that those mechanisms can fail.

U.S.-China Relations

State Secretary Antony Blinken is scheduled to meet China's President Xi Jinping, marking him as the first U.S. state secretary to have a meeting with the Chinese president in almost six years.

He is also the first of Biden's cabinet secretaries to visit China.

Blinken is visiting China after Biden and Xi agreed in November in Bali to find ways to stabilize U.S.-China relations.

Another Biden cabinet member to visit China is U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who aims to visit China later this year.

Yellen had a meeting with the top Chinese economic official, Liu He, in Zurich last month.

Meanwhile, a top Air Force general recently said that the United States and China would "probably go to war" over Taiwan in 2023, according to a leaked memo, which the Pentagon quickly dismissed.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: U.S. tracking suspected Chinese spy balloon - from CBS News