US shoots down four ‘flying objects’: What we know so far
In his most in-depth public remarks on the incidents, President Joe Biden said there is no evidence suggesting that three recently shot-down aerial objects spotted in North American airspace are connected to China.
The US president explained their discovery after US officials “closely scrutinised our airspace, including enhancing our radar to pick up more slow moving objects” but said the administration does not yet know “what exactly” the objects were, though “nothing suggests” that they came from China, as White House officials previously discussed.
Mr Biden said he makes “no apologies” for ordering an American fighter jet to shoot down a Chinese surveillance balloon, which he said sent a “clear message that the violation of our sovereignty is unacceptable.”
US intelligence officials are considering the possibility that strong air currents may have inadvertently pulled the balloon off its planned course to send it over mainland America, while diplomats from both countries scrambled to respond to the surprise intrusion.
Chinese authorities, meanwhile, have continued to deny that the balloon was used for intelligence gathering and suggested China could take “countermeasures”.
