A diplomatic crisis far from drying up. Beijing expressed “strong dissatisfaction” on Sunday after the United States shot down a Chinese balloon that had been flying over its soil for several days, saying it “reserves the right” to retaliate.
Saturday’s operation of an F-22 fighter jet took place “over waters off the coast of South Carolina, in US airspace,” US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin said in a statement. He noted that it was carried out in response to an “unacceptable violation” of American “sovereignty.”
“China expresses its strong discontent and protests against the use of force by the United States,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that it “reserved the right” to retaliate.
Washington “clearly overreacted” and “seriously violated international practices,” according to the same source.
The recovered rubble
The Pentagon says it was a spy balloon. The balloon “was used by the People’s Republic of China in an attempt to monitor strategic sites” in the United States, Lloyd Austin said.
Joe Biden congratulated the pilots who “successfully” carried out this delicate operation. He said he had given the order on Wednesday to shoot down the balloon “as soon as possible” but that the Pentagon wanted to wait “for the safest place to do it” to avoid damaging the ground when the balloon fell. any debris.
The move was also welcomed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “Together…we will continue to protect and defend ourselves,” he said in a tweet on Saturday.
Recovery operations, which may involve divers, were already underway. The debris is in shallow water, “that will make it pretty easy,” a senior military official said.
In videos broadcast by television channels on Saturday, the ball appeared to fall vertically after impact. At the time it was shot down, the balloon was about 18 kilometers above sea level and 11 kilometers from the coast, according to Pentagon officials.
Shortly before, air traffic had been suspended at three airports in the southeastern United States as a “national security” measure, the US civil aviation regulator (FAA) announced. There was one airport in North Carolina and two in South Carolina. Traffic resumed shortly after the operation ended.
diplomatic crisis
This case has cooled relations between Washington and Beijing, causing the postponement of a visit by the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, to China. The visit would have been the first by a US secretary of state since October 2018.
According to Pentagon officials, the balloon first entered US airspace on January 28 over Alaska, before entering Canada on January 30 and then re-entering US airspace at the level of Idaho in the northwestern United States. , On January 31. i.e. Tuesday.
But the Americans only learned of the balloon’s existence on Thursday, when it was over Montana, which is home to nuclear missile silos. Then it gradually moved to the east of the country.
Beijing acknowledged that the aircraft came from China, but assured that it is a “civil aircraft, used for research purposes, mainly meteorological.”
It would have “deviated from its course”, added a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressing his country’s “regret” for this “unintentional” violation of US airspace.
Source: BFM TV
