China disapproves of US shooting down ‘espionage balloon’: ‘Obvious overreaction’

A few hours later, China’s foreign ministry expressed its “severe disapproval” and appealed the US air force’s shooting down of the balloon. According to China, it was an accidently drifted “civilian aircraft” that posed no danger. The US response is unnecessary and exaggerated, the ministry said.

Video footage from American media shows how an American fighter jet flies near the balloon. When the balloon is hit – there was no explosion, an eyewitness tells Reuters – it appears to deflate and then fall. Smoke can be seen above the deflating balloon.

^{Text continues below the tweets.}

Earlier on Saturday evening Dutch time, the American aviation agency FAA closed three airports on the east coast “in support of an action by the Department of Defense for national security.” Earlier in the day, US President Joe Biden already hinted at the downing of the Chinese balloon, the size of three buses and with a considerable weight. “We will take care of it,” he replied when asked if the balloon would be brought down, without going into further details.

U.S. officials then reported on an anonymity basis that the idea would be to wait until the balloon was over the Atlantic Ocean to bring it down and fish it out. Then it can be studied and it can be checked what technology is on board, sources reported to American media.

The Defense Department now reports that Biden had already given his agreement on Wednesday to shoot down the balloon as soon as it was safe to do so and there was no threat to human life. Biden himself also responded to the successful downing of the Chinese balloon on Saturday evening Dutch time. He says he followed the advice of the Pentagon to shoot the balloon above water. Biden complemented the Air Force pilots who successfully completed their assignment.

The balloon was shot down by an F22 fighter jet, the US Department of Defense reports. The plane fired one missile about seven miles from the US coast. A US official tells Reuters news agency that the US believes the balloon is a Chinese spy balloon that is part of a fleet of balloons that have spied over five continents.

The US sees the alleged spy balloon as a violation of US airspace. China regrets the incident and says the balloon went off course due to force majeure and therefore floated above US territory. The airship, as Beijing calls it, is mainly intended for meteorological purposes, but according to Washington, the balloon contains all kinds of surveillance equipment.

Read also: The return of the spy balloon: ‘China is busy on all fronts to obtain information’

Foreign Minister Antony Blinken has postponed his planned visit to China because the issue would determine the dialogue between the two world powers too much. China says it has strictly adhered to international rules. In a telephone conversation with Blinken, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed “how to handle unintentional incidents calmly and professionally.”

The Pentagon reported early this morning, Dutch time, that a Chinese balloon had also been sighted over Latin America.

The Colombian Air Force confirmed it had spotted an object in the airspace on Friday morning that resembled a balloon. It had entered the airspace of Colombia at an altitude of 17 kilometers. The object flew from the north at a speed of about 45 kilometers per hour, but then moved away again.

According to the Air Force, no further action was necessary, because there was no indication that the balloon or the like posed a threat to national security or aviation. The Colombian Air Force is now working with other countries to find out where the thing came from.