US hits down suspected Chinese spy balloon over the east coast

Key takeaways: 

• Chinese foreign ministry blames the US for ‘overreacting’ and ‘breaking international practice’ after the balloon was hit.

A US fighter jet fired down a Chinese high-altitude balloon over the Atlantic Ocean after it had crossed the whole US and caused a diplomatic rift between the two nations.

The US shot down the doubted Chinese balloon: 

The balloon, which China said was for meteorological intentions, but the US demanded had been spying, could be seen on television collapsing and dropping from the sky.

A senior military officer told journalists the balloon had been downed by a single missile shot from an F-22 Raptor fighter plane that took off from Langley air force base in Virginia.

Joe Biden on the suspected Chinese air balloon: 

“On Wednesday, when I was informed on the balloon, I asked the Pentagon to hit it down on Wednesday as soon as possible, without hurting anyone on the ground,” Joe Biden told journalists.

“They chose that the best time to do that was over water within our 12-mile boundary. They successfully shot it down, and I want to applaud our aviators who did it.”

Chinese accuse the US of shooting it down: 

China blamed the United States for “clearly overreacting and seriously infringing international practice”.

“China voices strong dissatisfaction and rallies against the use of power by the United States to strike the unmanned civilian airship,” Beijing’s foreign ministry stated in a statement. 

They continued that it would “reserve the right to make further required answers.”

A senior administration official told the media that after hitting the balloon, the US government spoke straight with China about the action. 

The official said the State Department also reported allies and partners globally.

An aviation exclusion zone was reported off the South Carolina coast before fighter planes were launched. 

A salvage process by Navy and Coast Guard vessels was said to be underway to retrieve fragments of the broken balloon over a seven-mile field of waste.