President Joe Biden said the U.S. will “take care of” an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon that flew over the country and prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone an official trip to China.
Biden didn’t elaborate in a brief comment to reporters in Syracuse, New York, where he was attending a private event on Saturday, according to the White House. China has expressed regret about the incident, saying the balloon was conducting climate research and blew off course, an explanation rejected by the Pentagon.
Biden has faced calls from some Republicans for the U.S. to shoot down the balloon, a step the Defense Department has decided not to take.
“We’re going to take care of it,” Biden said Saturday when asked if he had a comment on China’s actions.
The balloon was initially detected entering U.S. airspace on Jan. 28 before lingering over Montana, the site of intercontinental-ballistic-missile silos, where it was also spotted by people on the ground.
Blinken had planned to meet President Xi Jinping during a trip to China starting Sunday, building 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.”
