An American fighter shot down on Saturday a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina, as reported by the Pentagon, which described the incident as an “inadmissible violation” of US sovereignty by Beijing.
President Joe Biden congratulated the pilots for shooting down in the airspace and over the territorial waters of the United States the aerostat, which had been flying over the country for several days.
“They successfully took it down. And I want to congratulate our Airmen who did it.” he told reporters in Maryland.
“Today’s deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President Biden and his national security teaml will always put the safety of the American people first and they will respond effectively to the unacceptable violation of our sovereignty by the People’s Republic of China,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in turn.
In videos broadcast on television networks on Saturdaythe balloon seemed to fall to the vertical after an impact.
Shortly before, air trafficor was suspended at three airports in the southeastern United States, one in North Carolina and two in South Carolina, for reasons of “national security”, announced the US civil aviation regulator (FAA).
“After careful analysis, US military commanders determined that knocking over the balloon when it was above the ground posed an unreasonable risk to people (…) due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload,” declared the Defense Minister.
That is why the army waited to be able to shoot it down “safely above our territorial waters, closely monitoring their trajectory and information-gathering activities.”
Beijing 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, “deviated from its trajectory”, according to a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Latin America
Canada spoke Friday of “a possible second incident” after Washington announced the presence of the first balloon. “Canada takes steps to ensure the safety of its airspace,” the government said without giving details.
The Pentagon said Friday that a second Chinese “surveillance” balloon had been detected over Latin America.
“We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America,” said the entity’s spokesman, Pat Ryder.
Also read: The US detects another Chinese “spy balloon” and says it is flying over Latin America
“Now we assess that it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” he added, without specifying his exact location.
While the Chinese authorities expressed “regret” over an “unintentional” intrusion, the Biden administration considered it “unacceptable” and decided to cancel a visit to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, scheduled for Sunday and Monday.
#4Feb2023
USA 🇺🇸
🚨🇺🇸🇨🇳 LAST MINUTE. US warplanes shoot down China’s “spy balloon” off the coast of Carolina.📡📲
Alerts 2️⃣4️⃣ pic.twitter.com/sSe4ZFO3O4— Hugo Romero Urquia (@urquia_hugo) February 4, 2023
The moment the US shot down the Chinese balloon from another angle pic.twitter.com/ue7oTkddxx
— Lorraine (@ Afroditaa1984) February 4, 2023
