*China Protests After US Jets Shoot Down Suspected Spy Balloon
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A U.S. military aircraft on Saturday downed the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that had been floating over the United States for several days, according to a U.S. official and eyewitness videos circulating on social media.
The balloon was brought down just off the Atlantic Coast, near the Carolinas, shortly after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered ground stops for all flights in and out of Wilmington, N.C., Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Charleston, S.C. In a statement, the agency said the ground stop was to “support the Department of Defense in a national security effort.”
President Biden, when asked about the situation earlier Saturday, told reporters, “We’re gonna take care of it.”
The days-long ordeal has placed new strains on what was already a fraught relationship between world powers, leading the Biden administration on Friday to postpone a trip to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The balloon was disclosed to the public on Thursday after appearing over Montana the day before, prompting a temporary stoppage of all flights out of the airport in Billings. On Friday a second Chinese spy balloon was spotted over Latin America, the Pentagon said.
U.S. officials say there is likely a third such balloon conducting surveillance in another part of the world.
The balloons are part of an extensive Chinese military surveillance program that has been running for years, involving a Chinese company supplying the technology to the People’s Liberation Army, said two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
The airship contains “some sophisticated communications gear” and had been lingering over strategic sites, said one official. Earlier this week it was spotted loitering over Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, home to several nuclear missile silos. “But what it actually does we don’t know.”
U.S. officials believe that the balloon both drifts with air currents and has the ability to be directed. The bottom of the balloon is outfitted with propellers, an official said.
“This is a substantial program,” said the official. It involves a commercial Chinese company providing the technology to the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese military. “This capacity has been used to fly over sensitive sites, and to collect information.”
U.S. officials have said the payload of the balloon is the size of three large buses.
Along the East Coast, onlookers noted the unusual activity. Danielle Skipper, who lives in Aynor, S.C., a rural farming community near Myrtle Beach, saw the balloon from the first time outside her house at 1:22 p.m. An hour later, she said it was still “lingering big time.”
Chinese balloon wreckage will be taken to Virginia FBI lab for analysis
Skipper had been out in her yard, with her husband and dogs, watching the balloon and filming videos. There were a lot of jets around the balloon she said.
“They start out with large circles, and then they come in and make closer circles,” she said, noting that the balloon being outside her house made her uneasy. “I wish it would go somewhere else besides here,” she said.
Remains from the suspected Chinese spy balloon will be taken to an FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, for analysis by FBI experts and intelligence agencies, according to two people briefed on the matter.
Earlier this afternoon, a senior defense official said the Defense Department has launched a collaborative effort with the FBI and counterintelligence authorities to assist with “categorizing and assessing the platform itself.”
Meanwhile, the China’s foreign ministry expressed “strong dissatisfaction” at the US for shooting down of its balloons over the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday.
“China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and protest against the US’s use of force to attack civilian unmanned aircraft. The Chinese side has repeatedly informed the US side after verification that the airship is for civilian use and entered the US due to force majeure – it was completely an accident,” it said in a statement.
“China will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of relevant companies, while reserving the right to make further necessary reaction.”
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