Watch: Moment Chinese ‘spy balloon’ is shot down over Carolina
China has reacted furiously to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address where he made reference to the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down over the Atlantic on Saturday.
During Tuesday night’s speech, Mr Biden said that the US wants to “seek competition, not conflict” with China but warned that “if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country”.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responded to his comments at a daily briefing on Wednesday, accusing the US of trying “to smear” the nation.
These tensions come after it emerged that the US had briefed 40 nations on intelligence the Pentagon has so far gathered on China’s surveillance balloons.
A senior administration official and diplomats said on Tuesday that US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman briefed almost 150 foreign diplomats across 40 embassies on Monday about the balloon that entered US airspace in late January. A briefing was also held at the US Embassy in Beijing with foreign diplomats.
The first images from the US Navy operation to recover debris from the balloon shot down at the weekend were also released, showing pieces of the craft being pulled out of the Atlantic Ocean.
