U.S. fighter jets shot down an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon off the South Carolina coast on Saturday, capping days of waiting as it traversed the country and prompted new tension in relations with China.
President Joe Biden said he ordered the Pentagon on Wednesday to shoot down the balloon as soon as possible “without doing damage to anyone on the ground.” The military decided the best window was on Saturday while the balloon was within the 12-mile limit of U.S. territorial waters.
“They successfully took it down and I want to compliment our aviators who did it, and we’ll have more to report on this a little later,” Biden told reporters.
News of the balloon entering U.S. airspace led Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a visit to China to meet with President Xi Jinping and prompted growing calls from Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, to shoot down the balloon. News channels later showed video of an explosion in a clear blue sky off the coast of Surfside Beach, South Carolina, and debris falling.
Recovery of the debris is under way, with U.S. vessels on site, a senior military official told reporters.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said China was using the balloon “in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States” and the U.S. plan to take it down involved “closely monitoring its path and intelligence collection activities.”
The military action shows that the administration is “responding effectively to the PRC’s unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Austin said in a statement, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
The balloon was initially detected entering U.S. airspace on Jan. 28. The white orb lingered over Montana, the site of intercontinental ballistic missile silos, and made its way across the country to North Carolina on Saturday.
The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily closed a section of U.S. airspace along the Carolina coast and ordered a halt to arrivals and departures at four airports in the region before the announcement that the balloon had been brought down.
On Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed that the high-altitude balloon belonged to China, but said that it was a civilian airship conducting climate research and accidentally blew off course. The Pentagon rejected that explanation, saying the balloon carried surveillance equipment and was maneuverable.
Blinken’s trip to China starting Sunday had been meant to build on diplomacy between Biden and Xi at last year’s Group of 20 summit. Blinken said Friday he told his Chinese counterpart that “the presence of this surveillance balloon in U.S. airspace is a clear violation of U.S. sovereignty and international law.”
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(With assistance from Alan Levin and Justin Sink.)
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