US rules out returning balloon debris to China
February 07, 2023  20:31
image
The United States has ruled out returning to China the debris of a surveillance balloon carrying a regional airliner-sized payload which was shot down by a US fighter jet in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina.
 
The US military has intensified its efforts to collect the remnants of the high-altitude surveillance balloon from China that floated over the United States over several days last week from Montana to South Carolina.
 
Initial information gathered from the balloon, the White House said on Monday with confidence, that it is a surveillance balloon. It violated international law and its sovereignty, officials said.
 
"I know of no such intention or plans to return it," said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, adding that the US military have recovered some remnants off the surface of the sea and they are still in the process of collecting them from under waters.
 
Before it was being shot down by a fighter jet on Saturday, Kirby said they had gathered enough vital information about the balloon.
 
"We're still analysing the information that we were able to collect off of the balloon before we shot it out of the sky and now we're going to recover it and I suspect we may learn even more," he said.
 
The balloon, he told reporters, was not merely drifting but had propellers and steering to give a measure of control, even as it was swept along in high altitude jet stream winds.
 
"It is true that this balloon had the ability to maneuver itself -- to speed up, to slow down and to turn. So it had propellers, it had a rudder, if you will, to allow it to change direction," Kirby said.
 
According to General Glen VanHerck, Commander of Northern Command, the balloon was up to 200 feet in height. It carried a payload weighing several thousand pounds, roughly the size of a regional jet aircraft, he said.
 
"China's, we believe, irresponsible action was visible for the American and the world to see. Not only that at the same time a second PRC surveillance balloon was seen traversing Latin America," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at her daily news conference.
 
"It is up to China to show it is serious about its words of being a responsible country that it wants to build on the meeting that the president had with President Xi very recently. So it's up to China to figure out what kind of relationship that they want," she said.
 
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Tuesday reaffirmed that the unmanned airship posed no threat to the US and entered its airspace accidentally.
 
Mao again criticised the US for "overreacting" rather than adopting a "calm" and "professional" manner, and for using force in bringing the balloon down Saturday in the Atlantic Ocean just off the US coast.
 
Asked if China wanted the debris back, she reasserted that the balloon "belongs to China."
 
"The balloon does not belong to the US. The Chinese government will continue to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests," Mao said.
 
As the Chinese spy balloon floated over the continental America, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed his trip to China.
« Back to LIVE

TOP STORIES