The United States recovered the first debris from the downed Chinese balloon on Saturday, a White House spokesman said Monday, adding there was no question of returning it to China.
Teams deployed off the coast of South Carolina, in the southeast of the country, “recovered some debris from the surface of the sea,” said John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council of the US Executive, during an interview with the press. .
He said “weather conditions” had so far not allowed for underwater recovery operations.
John Kirby also indicated that the United States did not “intend to return” the collected debris to China.
“Understand and study better” the globe
While US President Joe Biden is criticized by the Republican opposition for having taken too long to tear down the device, the spokesman said that this delay had given Americans “a tremendous opportunity to better understand and ‘study ‘ The balloon”. waiting for the debris to provide more information.
He also assured that the United States had “taken steps to limit the (data) collection capabilities that this balloon would have had over our sensitive military sites.”
Finally, John Kirby said that the Biden administration had “reached out to senior officials in the previous administration and provided briefings” about the Chinese balloon flyovers that took place while Donald Trump was president.
According to the Pentagon, Chinese balloons flew over US territory three times, for brief periods, during the presidency of Donald Trump, and once, also briefly, at the beginning of Joe Biden’s term.
Source: BFM TV
