US shoots down China’s spy balloon, China threatens consequences
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A senior US defense official told reporters in Washington that on the instructions of President Joe Biden, the US military shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon in the Atlantic Ocean about 9.65 kilometers off the US coast in South Carolina at 2:39 pm local time. .
The US military has shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon in the Atlantic Ocean and launched an operation to recover all equipment from its wreckage. At the same time, reacting strongly to this action on Sunday, China threatened America of dire consequences for using force against its civilian unmanned aircraft.
A senior US defense official told reporters in Washington that on the instructions of President Joe Biden, the US military shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon in the Atlantic Ocean about 9.65 kilometers off the US coast in South Carolina at 2:39 pm local time. . He said that there was no loss of life or property to American citizens during the shooting down of the balloon. According to a defense official, a fighter jet taking off from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia fired a missile that caused the balloon to crash into the ocean within US airspace.
Biden told reporters in Maryland, “I instructed them to shoot down the balloon.” had ordered. They (Pentagon) decided to do this without harming anyone on the ground and found the best time to do this was when the balloon was over the ocean.
China’s official news agency Xinhua on Sunday cited a statement by China’s Foreign Ministry as saying that Beijing strongly protested the US use of force to attack China’s civilian unmanned aerial vehicle. According to the statement, “The US’s insistence on the use of force is indeed an unnecessary response and a serious violation of international procedure.” China will resolutely uphold the legitimate rights and interests of the relevant company while reserving the right to take further steps in its response.”
China claimed that the balloon was merely a weather research “aircraft”. According to Beijing, it has repeatedly informed the US after verification that the balloon was of a civilian nature and that its entry into the US was due to force majeure. According to China, it had asked the US to deal with the matter peacefully, professionally and in a controlled manner. At the same time, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that on the instructions of President Biden, a fighter plane shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon over the sea off the coast of South Carolina in US airspace.
Austin said, “The balloon being used by China in an attempt to monitor strategic sites in the American continent was shot down over American waters.” He said that the balloon the size of three buses was shot down. The action was carried out in coordination and with the full cooperation of the Canadian government. Defense officials told US media that the debris fell near Myrtle Beach in South Carolina and the military is now trying to recover the debris spread over an 11-kilometer area.
A Pentagon official said that immediately after the balloon was shot down, they took steps to retrieve the sensitive information collected by the balloon in order to eliminate its intelligence value to China. According to the official, several ships and divers are present at the spot. In addition, officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other intelligence authorities have also reached the spot.
“By shooting down the balloon, the US can recover sensitive Chinese equipment,” the official said. I can’t give more details, but we will be able to study the balloon and the equipment in it. It entered Alaska on 28 January. Thereafter, it entered Canadian airspace on 30 January and then entered US airspace again on 31 January.
President Biden has been under pressure to shoot down the balloon since defense officials first announced on Thursday that they were tracking it. After the balloon was shot down, Biden said, “They successfully shot down the Chinese balloon and I want to congratulate the pilots who carried out this mission.”
America’s first lady Jill Biden called it a proud moment. A senior military official told CNN that the wreckage of the balloon is easy to recover and is likely to take “a relatively short amount of time.” He said “competent divers of the Navy” could be deployed to assist in the operation. Another senior defense official said, “China has a fleet of such surveillance balloons. Similar balloons were also seen flying in the skies of Venezuela and Colombia this week.
The incident of shooting down the Chinese balloon may increase the tension in US-China relations. The Pentagon has called it an “unacceptable violation” of US sovereignty. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Beijing it was “an irresponsible act”. He had also postponed his China visit to be held from February 5 to 6. However, China downplayed the cancellation of his visit, saying in a statement on Saturday that neither side had formally announced such a visit.
Disclaimer:IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
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