The United States on Saturday downed a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast on orders from President Joe Biden after it hovered over sensitive military sites across North America, becoming the latest flashpoint in tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The balloon was spotted in the morning over the Carolinas as it approached the Atlantic coast. At about 2:40pm local time, an F-22 fighter jet fired a missile at the balloon, puncturing it while it was about 6 nautical miles off the coast near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Pentagon officials said.
Officials said the debris landed in 47 feet of water, shallower than they had expected. It was not immediately clear how long the recovery would take. The Navy is taking the lead, supported by the Coast Guard.
“They successfully took it down and I want to compliment our aviators who did it," Biden said after getting off Air Force One en route to Camp David.
Television footage showed a small explosion, followed by the giant deflated balloon descending like a ribbon toward the water. US military jets were seen flying in the vicinity and ships were deployed in the water to mount the recovery operation.
Georgetown resident Joey Lopes told CNN he was visiting Myrtle Beach for the day when he heard a loud bang in the sky. He recorded video footage of the balloon moments after it started to fall from the sky.
Officials were aiming to time the operation so they could recover as much of the debris as possible before it sinks into the ocean. The Pentagon had previously estimated that any debris field would be substantial.
In preparation for the operation, the FAA Administration temporarily closed airspace over the Carolina coastline, including the airports in Charleston and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina.
The Coast Guard advised mariners to immediately leave the area because of US military operations “that present a significant hazard”.
Biden had been inclined to down the balloon over land when he was first briefed on it on Tuesday, but Pentagon officials advised against it, warning that the potential risk to people on the ground outweighed the assessment of potential Chinese intelligence gains.
The public disclosure of the balloon this week prompted the cancellation of a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing scheduled for Sunday for talks aimed at reducing US-China tensions. The Chinese government on Saturday sought to play down the cancellation.
“In actuality, the US and China have never announced any visit, the US making any such announcement is their own business, and we respect that," China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Saturday morning.
China has continued to claim that the balloon was merely a weather research “airship” that had been blown off course. The Pentagon rejected that out of hand – as well as China’s contention that it was not being used for surveillance and had only limited navigational ability.
The balloon was spotted over Montana, which is home to one of America’s three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
The Pentagon also acknowledged reports of a second balloon flying over Latin America. “We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a question about the second balloon.
Blinken, who had been due to depart Washington for Beijing late Friday, said he had told senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in a phone call that sending the balloon over the US was “an irresponsible act and that (China’s) decision to take this action on the eve of my visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions that we were prepared to have.”
China has denied any claims of spying and said it is a civilian-use balloon intended for meteorology research. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that the balloon's journey was out of its control and urged the US not to “smear” it based on the balloon.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP)
