WASHINGTON, Feb 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Joe Biden said he would talk to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in the wake of the US Air Force shooting down what Washington says was a high-tech Chinese spy balloon earlier this month.
“I expect to be speaking with President Xi and… we’re going to get to the bottom of this,” Biden said in his most extensive public remarks since the incident on Feb 4.
While stressing that the United States is “not looking for a new Cold War,” Biden said he made “no apologies for taking down that balloon.”
“We’ll always act to protect the interests of the American people and the security of the American people,” Biden said.
The United States has been in a state of alarm since a huge white balloon from China was spotted tracking over a series of top-secret nuclear weapons sites before being shot down just off the east coast.
In the wake of the incident, the US military adjusted radar settings to detect smaller objects and promptly discovered three more unidentified craft that Biden ordered shot down — one over Alaska, another over Canada and the third over Lake Huron off Michigan.
China says the balloon was just a stray weather research craft, but US officials say they have conclusive evidence that the balloon was sent to spy.
The incident has prompted a diplomatic rift, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceling a rare visit to China. Beijing accused Washington of overreacting and claimed that US balloons had overflown Chinese territory, something the Biden administration denies.
Biden drew a clear distinction between the Chinese balloon and the three smaller objects shot down later.
“We don’t yet know exactly what these three objects were,” Biden said.
He added that “nothing right now suggests they’re related to China’s spy balloon program,” while the US intelligence community’s current assessment is that they are “most likely balloons tied to private companies” or research projects.
However, “if any object presents a threat to the safety, security (of) the American people, I will take it down,” Biden said.
MEANWHILE, the search for debris from an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon shot down earlier this month has ended, the military’s Northern Command said.
“Recovery operations concluded February 16 off the coast of South Carolina, after US Navy assets assigned to US Northern Command successfully located and retrieved debris from the high-altitude PRC surveillance balloon,” NORTHCOM said in a statement.
“Final pieces of debris are being transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory in Virginia for counterintelligence exploitation,” it added. — NNN-AGENCIES
