China protested Sunday over the shooting down of an alleged spy balloon flying over the United States and accused Washington of “react clearly out of proportion” and incurring a “gross violation of international practices”.
“China expresses its strong discontent and protests against the use of force by the United States to attack a civilian unmanned aircraft,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that it reserves “the right to provide further answers”.
The plane flew over the United States for several days, escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing, before being shot down over the Atlantic by a missile launched from an F-22 jet on Saturday, Pentagon officials said.
“Today’s deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President Biden and his national security team will always put the safety of the American people first and respond effectively to unacceptable violation of our sovereignty by the People’s Republic of China,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
The balloon “was used by the People’s Republic of China in an attempt to monitor strategic sites” by the United States, it added.
US officials first said on Thursday they were tracking a huge Chinese “surveillance balloon” in the sky above the United States. The news prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a rare trip to Beijing intended to contain rising tensions between the two countries.
His visit to China would have been the first by a US secretary of state since October 2018 and would have come as the two superpowers are trying to prevent tensions from escalating into open conflict.
China later said it had asked Washington “to properly handle the situation in a calm, professional and moderate manner”.
However, according to today’s note from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the United States “he insisted on the use of force” towards an “unmanned civilian aircraft”, which the Asian giant has defined as a “clearly disproportionate” reaction.
“China will resolutely safeguard the rights and legitimate interests of the affected enterprises and reserves the right to provide further answers if necessary“, He added.
Beijing accused Washington of committing a “gross violation of international practices,” AFP news agency reported.
In the videos broadcast yesterday by the television networks, the ball appeared to fall vertically after an impact. At the time of the shooting it was about 18 kilometers above sea level, about 11 kilometers from the coast, according to Pentagon officials.
“After careful consideration, US military commanders determined that shooting down the balloon while it was above the ground posed an unreasonable risk to people…due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload.” , said the defense minister.
For this reason, the Army waited to be able to shoot it down “in safety on our territorial waters, closely monitoring its path and information gathering activities”.
China admitted on Friday that the balloon seen over the United States was indeed a Chinese device, but that it was “a civilian aircraft, used for research purposes, mainly meteorological” which due to the winds “deviated from its trajectory”. according to a report, a spokesman for the Farnesina.
According to Washington, the balloon was flying above commercial air traffic and posed “no military or physical threat to anyone on the ground.” But he declined to specify whether the device was moved by the wind or in a controlled manner.
With information from agencies.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.