Washington: A suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down by the United States on Saturday off the coast of Carolina after a visit to key military bases in North America and became the latest source of friction between Washington and Beijing.
The balloon, which was the size of three school buses and was flying at about 60,000 feet, contained debris that was being recovered in US territorial waters in the Atlantic Ocean.
Asked about the balloon earlier on Saturday, President Joe Biden replied, "We're going to take care of that." As the balloon approached the ocean, the Federal Aviation Administration and Coast Guard worked to clear the air and water below it.
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A small explosion was seen on television, then the balloon descended towards the water. Ships were deployed in the water to carry out recovery operations and US military jets were seen flying nearby.
The goal of the operation was for the authorities to recover as much debris as they could before it sank into the sea. The size of any debris field was previously predicted by the Pentagon.
The balloon was seen coming down the coast of the Carolinas on Saturday morning. The FAA administration temporarily closed airspace along the Carolina coastline, including airports in Wilmington, North Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in preparation for the operation. Due to flight restrictions, the FAA cleared air traffic from the area and issued a delay warning.
Sailors were advised by the Coast Guard to leave the area immediately because US military operations "present a significant danger."
When Biden first learned about the balloon on Tuesday, he was inclined to shoot it down on the ground, but Pentagon officials warned against it, saying the risk to ground personnel outweighed the potential benefit to Chinese intelligence .
The public disclosure of the balloon this week led to the postponement of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's planned trip to Beijing for talks aimed at reducing tensions between the US and China. On Saturday, the Chinese government attempted to downplay the cancellations.
Any such announcement by the US is their own doing and we respect that. In fact, the US and China have never announced any visit," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday morning.
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The balloon was, according to China, only an "airship" used for weather research that flew away. The Pentagon categorically denied this, as well as China's claim that it was only used for limited navigation and was not being used for surveillance.
The balloon was seen over Montana, which is home to Malmstrom Air Force Base, one of three nuclear missile silo areas in the country.
Reports of a second balloon flying over Latin America were also confirmed by the Pentagon. According to a statement by Brig. "We now assess that this is another Chinese surveillance balloon," said Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary.
Questions about the second balloon were not immediately answered by China's foreign ministry. In a phone call with senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi, Blinken, who was scheduled to leave for Beijing late Friday, said he warned Wang Yi that China's decision to send the balloon over the US was "a non- responsible act" and that it "could be detrimental to the important discussions we have scheduled."
The official government position that the US was exaggerating the situation was reflected in uncensored responses on the Chinese Internet.
Some saw this as an opportunity to ridicule American defenses, claiming they could not even defend against a balloon. Nationalist influencers seized the opportunity to use the news to discredit America.
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China has denied any allegations that it was spying and insisted that it was a balloon used for meteorological research for civilian use. The US should not "smear" the country as a result of the balloon, the State Department insisted, as it had no control over the balloon's course.