US shoots down Chinese spy balloon; Beijing threatens of repercussions
The Chinese surveillance balloon, hovering over the Atlantic Ocean, was shot down on Saturday by the US military at the direction of President Joe Biden. No damage to life and property were reported.
China has called it a violation of international practice, and has threatened of repercussions.
Pentagon has now said that said it has launched a mission to recover all the equipment from the debris.
“At the direction of President Joe Biden, the US military at 2.39 pm EST shot down the Chinese surveillance balloon in the Atlantic Ocean, some six miles away from the US shores in South Carolina, with no damage to the life and properties of Americans,” a senior defence official told reporters.
Fighter aircraft from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia inspired a single missile into the balloon causing it to crash into the ocean within the US territorial airspace, the official said, adding that as of now there are no indications that any people including US military personnel, civilian aircraft or maritime vessels were harmed in any way.
“I told them to shoot it down,” Biden told reporters in Hagerstown, Maryland.
“On Wednesday, when I was briefed on the balloon, I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down as soon as possible. They decided – without doing damage to anyone on the ground – the best time to do that was as it got over water, outside within the 12-mile limit,” Biden said.
“This afternoon, at the direction of President Biden, fighter aircraft assigned to US Northern Command successfully brought down the high altitude surveillance balloon launched by and belonging to the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) over the water off the coast of South Carolina in US airspace. The balloon, which was being used by the PRC in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States, was brought down above US territorial waters,” Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
Also read: Chinese ‘spy balloon’ may remain in US skies for a while; Blinken cancels trip
Austin said the action was taken in coordination, and with the full support, of the Canadian government.
The Pentagon official told reporters soon thereafter that they took immediate steps to protect against the balloon’s collection of sensitive information mitigating its intelligence value to China.
By shooting down the balloon it addressed the surveillance threat posed to military installations and further neutralise any intelligence value it could have produced, preventing it from returning to China. In addition, shooting the balloon down could enable the US to recover sensitive PRC equipment.
“While we took all necessary steps to protect against the PRC surveillance balloon collection of sensitive information of the surveillance balloons overflight of US territory, which was of intelligence value to us,” the official said without divulging much of the information.
“I can’t go into more detail, but we were able to study and scrutinise the balloon and its equipment, which has been valuable.”
Merely a weather research airship: China
Responding to the downing of the balloon, China expressed strong dissatisfaction and opposition towards the US “use of force” to attack China’s civilian unmanned airship, state-run Xinhua news agency cited a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry as saying on Sunday.
China has claimed that the balloon was merely a weather research airship that had been blown off course. This action of downing the balloon of the size of three buses was taken in coordination, and with the full support of the Canadian government.
Defence officials told US media the debris landed in 14m of water – shallower than they had expected – near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The military is now trying to recover debris which is spread over seven miles (11 km).
The Pentagon official told reporters that they took immediate steps to protect against the balloon’s collection of sensitive information mitigating its intelligence value to China.
Now that the balloon has been shot down, the focus has shifted to the recovery mission, which is already underway. Multiple vessels are on the spot along with the divers, to go down if needed. The US has also deployed unmanned vessels that can go down to get the structure and lift it back up on the recovery ship, said the official.
Also read: China says it is looking into report of spy balloon in US airspace
FBI officials are also on board as well as other counterintelligence authorities to categorise and assess the platform itself. According to the second senior defence official, the Pentagon has been tracking this high-altitude balloon for some time. It entered Alaska on January 28. It then entered into Canadian airspace on January 30 and re-entered US airspace over Northern Idaho on January 31.
“With confidence, the high-altitude balloon was a PRC surveillance balloon. We assessed that it did not pose a threat at any time to civilian air traffic and because of the altitude of the balloons. We also assess it did not pose a military or kinetic threat to US people or property on the ground, although we were constantly updating both of those assessments and prepared to take it out if that threat profile changed,” said the official.
(With inputs from agencies)
