As US fighter jets shot down a Chinese ‘spy’ balloon off the Carolina coast on Saturday, President Joe Biden said he ordered the Pentagon to shoot down the suspected Chinese surveillance
Balloon as soon as possible when he was briefed on the matter. Biden spoke to the media in Maryland after the successful operation by the US Air Force and said, ““On Wednesday, when I was briefed on the balloon, I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down as soon as possible.
They decided to do it without doing damage to anyone on the ground. They decided that the best time to do that was when it got over open water.” Furthermore, lauding the aviators who carried out the operation, Biden said, “They successfully took it down. And I want to compliment our aviators who did it. And we’ll have more to report on this a little later.”
In response to a question on whether his national security team had recommended taking down the balloon, Biden stated, “I told them to shoot it down. They said to me, Let’s wait for the safest place.”
Meanwhile, China blasted the Pentagon’s decision, accusing the United States of “clearly overreacting and seriously violating international practice”, threatening repercussions.
“China expresses strong dissatisfaction and protests against the use of force by the United States to attack the unmanned civilian airship,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that it would “reserve the right to make further necessary responses.”
The balloon triggered a diplomatic maelstrom, with US state secretary Antony Blinken cancelling his trip to Beijing.
China had insisted that the balloon was just an errant civilian airship used mainly for meteorological research and deviated from its course due to winds and “limited steering” capability. The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement that Beijing “regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace.”