US Navy personnel on Sunday worked to recover the debris of a suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down after it floated over the US for days.
China voiced anger on Sunday at the shooting down of the balloon, which it says was an uncrewed weather surveillance aircraft that had veered off course.
“The United States’ actions have seriously impacted and damaged both sides’ efforts and progress in stabilising Sino-US relations,” Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Xie Feng (謝峰) said.
The balloon’s detection prompted the cancelation of a planned visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who had been due to arrive in Beijing on Sunday, but Republicans continued to savage US President Joe Biden’s handling of the incident, saying the balloon should have been shot down earlier and accusing him of being soft on China.
The balloon spent several days flying over North America, before Washington on Saturday said an F-22 fighter jet had shot it down off the coast of South Carolina, because of what it called Beijing’s “unacceptable violation” of US sovereignty.
Pentagon officials on Friday described the airship as a “high-altitude surveillance balloon,” saying that Washington had taken steps to block it from collecting sensitive information.
General Glen VanHerck, commander of the US Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, on Sunday said that navy personnel were “currently conducting recovery operations, with the US Coast Guard assisting in securing the area and maintaining public safety.”
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the downing of the balloon by a fighter jet “wasn’t just the safest option, but it was the one that maximized our intel gain.”
That was because any instrumentation on the airship was more likely to survive a water landing.
“We sent a clear message to China that this is unacceptable,” he said in a statement. “We protected civilians. We gained more intel while protecting our own sensitive information.”
He said the full US Senate would receive a classified briefing on Wednesday next week.
In an interview with ABC News, former US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mike Mullen was asked if he thought elements in the Chinese military might have launched the balloon to disrupt the Blinken visit.
“Clearly, I think that’s the case,” he said.
Mullen said the craft was maneuverable, and he rejected China’s suggestion it might have blown off course.
“It has propellers on it,” he said. “This was not an accident. This was deliberate. It was intelligence,” he said.
The Pentagon on Friday said a second Chinese spy balloon had been seen across Latin America.
The Colombian Air Force then reported over the weekend an object with “characteristics similar to those of a balloon” was detected and “monitored until it left the national air space.”
The air force said it was conducting investigations in coordination with other countries and institutions “to establish the origins of the object.”
In the US, the Biden administration continued to come under fire from the Republicans over its handling of the incident.
“As usual when it comes to national defense and foreign policy, the Biden administration reacted at first too indecisively and then too late,” US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote on Twitter.
“We should not have let the People’s Republic of China make a mockery of our airspace,” he said.
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