China protested the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States, accusing Washington of “reacting clearly disproportionately” and in “serious violation of international practice.”
“China expresses its strong discontent and protest against the use of force by the United States to attack a civilian unmanned aircraft,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that it would reserve “the right to provide further responses.”
The ship had been flying over the United States for several daysescalating tensions between Washington and Beijing, before being struck down over the Atlantic by a missile fired from an F-22 jet on Saturday, Pentagon officials said.
President Joe Biden congratulated the F-22 pilots.
“Today’s deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President Biden and his national security team will always put the security of the American people first and will respond effectively to the PRC’s unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” the secretary said. of Defence, Lloyd Austin.
The balloon “was used by the People’s Republic of China in an attempt to police strategic sitesfrom the United States, he added.
US officials first said Thursday that they were tracking a huge Chinese “surveillance balloon” in the sky over the United States.
The news led Secretary of State Antony blinkento cancel a rare trip to Beijing intended to contain rising tensions between the two countries.
His visit to China would have been the first by a US secretary of state since October 2018 and would have come as the two superpowers are trying to prevent tensions from escalating into open conflict.
“Today’s deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President Biden and his national security team will always put the security of the American people first.”Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense
China later claimed to have asked Washington “to properly handle the situation in a calm, professional and moderate manner.”
However, according to this Sunday’s note from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, The United States “insisted on the use of force” towards an “unmanned civil aircraft”which the Asian giant described as a “clearly disproportionate” reaction.
“China will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the affected companies and reserves the right to provide further responses if necessary,” it added.
Beijing accused Washington of engaging in a “serious violation of international practices”reported the AFP news agency.
In videos broadcast on television networks, the balloon appeared to fall vertically after impact. At the time of being shot down, he was at about 18 kilometers of altitudeabout 11 kilometers from the coast, according to Pentagon officials.
“After careful analysis, US military commanders determined that shooting down the balloon while above the ground posed an unreasonable risk to people … due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload,” the statement said. Defense Minister.
That is why the Army waited to be able to shoot it down “safely over our territorial waters, closely monitoring its path and information gathering activities.”
The ship had been flying over the US for several days
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China admitted on Friday that the balloon seen over the United States was indeed a Chinese device, but that it was “a civil aircraft, used for research purposes, mainly meteorological” that due to the winds, “diverted from its trajectory”, according to a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.
According to Washington, the balloon was flying above commercial air traffic and posed “no military or physical threat to people on the ground.” But he refused to specify whether the device was moved by the wind or in a controlled manner.
It is not the first time that the US military has registered an intrusion of this type, but this aircraft stayed longer than others in United States airspace.
Other “potential incidents”
Without giving details, Canada spoke Friday of “a possible second incident” after Washington announced the presence of the first balloon.
The Pentagon said on Friday that a second Chinese “surveillance” balloon had been detected over Latin America.
