China warns of ‘necessary responses’ after US shoots down balloon

WASHINGTON: The Biden administration lauded the Pentagon for shooting down an alleged Chinese spy balloon off the US Atlantic coast on Saturday, but China angrily voiced its “strong dissatisfaction” at the move and said it may make “necessary responses.”

The craft spent several days flying over North America before it was targeted off the coast of the southeastern state of South Carolina with a missile fired from an F-22 plane, Pentagon officials said, falling into relatively shallow water just 47 feet (14 meters) deep. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called the operation a “deliberate and lawful action” that came in response to China´s “unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”

But China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blasted the US action in a statement Sunday morning, saying the downing of the “civilian” aircraft was “clearly overreacting and seriously violating international practice.”

Saturday afternoon was the military’s first chance to take down the balloon “in a way that would not pose a threat to the safety of Americans,” a senior defense official told reporters, while still allowing authorities to collect the fallen debris from US territorial waters. President Joe Biden congratulated the fighter pilots involved.

The controversy erupted Thursday, when American officials said they were tracking a large Chinese “surveillance balloon” in US skies. That led Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday to scrap a rare trip to Beijing designed to contain rising US-China tensions.

After initial hesitation, Beijing admitted ownership of the “airship,” but said it was a civilian weather balloon that had been blown off course and that it “regrets” the episode. But after Saturday’s operation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed China’s “strong dissatisfaction and protests against the use of force by the United States to attack the unmanned civilian airship.”

Instead of responding in a “restrained manner,” the ministry said in its statement, “the United States insisted on using force, clearly overreacting. China will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of relevant enterprises and reserve the right to make further necessary responses.”

Teams were already working on recovering the balloon’s remains, a senior military official said Saturday. The balloon had flown over parts of the northwestern United States -- including the state of Montana -- that are home to sensitive airbases and strategic nuclear missiles in underground silos. “We are confident it was seeking to monitor sensitive military sites,” the senior defense official said.

By late Saturday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration had opened the airspace off the coast of the Carolinas, after three southeastern airports were temporarily shut down over a “national security” effort.

Another suspected Chinese spy balloon was seen over Latin America, the Pentagon said Friday, without providing details. “Over the past several years, Chinese balloons have previously been spotted over countries across five continents, including East Asia, South Asia and Europe,” the senior defense official said Saturday.