A week after it initially entered American airspace and set off a dramatic and public spying saga that deteriorated Sino-U.S. ties, a U.S. military fighter jet shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina.
Although the Pentagon advised deflating the balloon over open water to protect civilians from debris falling to Earth from thousands of feet (metres) above commercial air traffic, President Joe Biden claimed to have given the order to do so on Wednesday. “They successfully took it down, and I want to compliment our aviators who did it,” Biden said.
China vehemently denounced the military action
One F-22 fighter plane from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia fired the shot at 2:39 p.m. (1939 GMT) with a lone AIM-9X supersonic, heat-seeking air-to-air missile, according to a senior U.S. military official. Multiple fighters and refuelling aircraft were part of the mission.
China vehemently denounced the military action on an airship that it said was utilised for meteorological and other scientific purposes and that had “totally accidentally” wandered into American airspace, claims that were categorically denied by American officials. “China had clearly asked the U.S. to handle this properly in a calm, professional and restrained manner,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “The U.S. had insisted on using force, obviously overreacting.”
The balloon was shot down over relatively shallow water around six nautical miles off the American coast
According to U.S. officials, the balloon was shot down over relatively shallow water around six nautical miles off the American coast of the Atlantic Ocean. This could help efforts to recover pieces of Chinese spying equipment in the following days. The debris field, according to a U.S. military officer, covered seven miles (11 km) of the ocean, and several U.S. military vessels were present.
The balloon was brought down shortly after the United States government banned flights into and out of Wilmington, Myrtle Beach, and Charleston airports in South Carolina due to an unspecified “national security action,” according to the authorities at the time. On Saturday afternoon, flights started up again.
While the military aspect of the eavesdropping drama is over thanks to Saturday’s shootdown, Biden is likely to continue to come under heavy political pressure from Republican rivals in Congress who claim he didn’t respond soon enough.
The U.S. government personally discussed the action with China after shooting down the balloon
According to a senior administration official, the U.S. government personally discussed the action with China after shooting down the balloon. According to the individual, the State Department also briefed allies and partners globally. There are still unanswered questions regarding how much data China may have obtained during the balloon’s journey over America.
The balloon entered U.S. airspace in Alaska on Jan. 28 before moving into Canadian airspace on Jan 30. It then re-entered U.S. airspace over northern Idaho on Jan. 31, a U.S. defence official said. Once it crossed over U.S. land, it did not return to open waters, making a shootdown difficult.
The balloon’s location over the country was not made public by American officials until Thursday. Republican U.S. Representative Mike Rogers, who chairs the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said that it is obvious the Biden administration intended to conceal this national security blunder from Congress and the American people.
Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to postpone Blinken’s trip in November
This criticism may have prompted Biden to emphasise on Saturday that he had ordered the balloon to be shot down as soon as possible days earlier. Biden’s probable opponent in the 2024 election, former President Donald Trump, called earlier this week for the balloon to be shot down and has attempted to position himself as being more assertive than Biden on China. The U.S.-China relationship is probably going to be a prominent topic of discussion in the 2024 presidential election.
Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to postpone Blinken’s trip in November, which came as a disappointment to those who saw it as a long overdue chance to mend the increasingly strained relations between the two nations. China wants a stable relationship with the United States so that it can concentrate on its economy, which has been hurt by the now-abandoned zero-COVID policy and ignored by international investors who are concerned about what they perceive to be a return of state meddling in the market.