US downs Chinese balloon, drawing a threat from China

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military on Saturday shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast after it traversed sensitive military sites across North America. China insisted the flyover was an accident involving a civilian aircraft and threatened repercussions.

President Joe Biden issued the order but wanted the balloon downed earlier, on Wednesday. He was advised that the best time for the operation would be when it was over water, U.S. officials said. Military officials determined that bringing it down over land from an altitude of 60,000 feet would pose a risk to people on the ground.

China said it reserved the right to “take further actions” and criticized the U.S. for “an obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice.”

“China will resolutely uphold the relevant company’s legitimate rights and interests, and at the same time reserving the right to take further actions in response,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Larry Mayer, The Billings Gazette

A high-altitude balloon floats Wednesday over Billings, Mont.

The balloon in the skies above the U.S. dealt a severe blow to already strained U.S.-Chinese relations. It had Americans looking to the skies and prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a high-stakes diplomatic trip to Beijing.

The giant white orb was spotted Saturday morning over the Carolinas. The Federal Aviation Administration and Coast Guard worked to clear the airspace and water below the balloon as it reached the Atlantic Ocean.

About 2:39 p.m. EST, an F-22 fighter jet fired a missile at the balloon, puncturing it about 6 nautical miles off the coast near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, senior defense officials said. Television footage showed a small explosion, followed by the giant deflated balloon descending like a ribbon.

The debris landed in 47 feet of water, shallower than officials expected, and spread out over roughly seven miles. The recovery operation included several ships and the officials estimated the process would be completed in a short time, not weeks.

U.S. defense and military officials said Saturday that the balloon entered the U.S. air defense zone north of the Aleutian Islands on Jan. 28 and moved largely over land across Alaska and then into Canadian airspace in the Northwest Territories on Monday. It crossed back into U.S. territory over Idaho on Tuesday, the day the White House said Biden was first briefed on it.

The balloon was spotted Thursday over Montana, home to Malmstrom Air Force Base, which has fields of nuclear missile silos.

The Americans were able to collect intelligence on the balloon, giving them a number of days to analyze it and learn how it moved and what it was capable of surveilling, two senior defense officials said on condition of anonymity.

The officials said the U.S. military was constantly assessing the threat and concluded that the technology on the balloon didn’t give the Chinese significant intelligence beyond what it could already obtain from satellites, though the U.S. took steps to mitigate what information it could gather.

Republicans were critical of Biden’s response.

“Allowing a spy balloon from the Communist Party of China to travel across the entire continental United States before contesting its presence is a disastrous projection of weakness by the White House,” said Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“Now that this embarrassing episode is over, we need answers from the Biden Administration on the decision-making process,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., tweeted. “Communist China was allowed to violate American sovereignty unimpeded for days. We must be better prepared for future provocations and incursions by the CCP.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was more positive: “Thank you to the men and women of the United States military who were responsible for completing the mission to shoot down the Chinese surveillance balloon. The Biden Administration did the right thing in bringing it down.”

The Pentagon rejected China’s claims that the balloon was merely a weather research “airship” that blew off course. Officials said the balloons are part of a fleet China uses for surveillance, and they can be maneuvered remotely with small motors and propellers. One official said they carry equipment in the pod under the balloon that is not usually associated with standard meteorological activities or civilian research.

Such balloons entered U.S. airspace at least three times during the Trump administration and at least one other time during Biden’s presidency they’ve seen balloons cross, but not for this long, one official said.

The Pentagon acknowledged reports of a second Chinese surveillance balloon over Latin America. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a question about it.

The Chinese government on Saturday sought to downplay the cancellation of Blinken’s trip. “In actuality, the U.S. and China have never announced any visit, the U.S. making any such announcement is their own business, and we respect that,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Uncensored reactions on the Chinese internet mirrored the official government stance that the U.S. was hyping the situation. Some used it as a chance to mock the U.S.