In condemning the decision of the American government shoot down the spy balloonwhich entered US airspace in the past few days, China’s Foreign Ministry said.
He repeated that it did not serve military purposes, while accusing Washington of “overreaction and serious violation of international practices”.
“China Expresses Strong Displeasure and Protests over US Use of Force”says the statement issued by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adding that it “reserves the right” to respond.
According to a senior US Pentagon official, the balloon was shot down about six nautical miles off the coast of USA. It was hit by an AIM-9X missile fired from an F-22 fighter jet and there was no collateral damage or danger to civilians, he added.
The Chinese balloon entered US airspace on January 28crossed into Canadian airspace on the 30th of the month and re-entered American airspace the next day.
The US military will seek to retrieve the balloon’s payload. According to an official, the debris is scattered in a radius of 11 kilometers.
In a statement, the American Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin emphasizes that this particular balloon was used by China in an attempt to monitor strategic US facilities.
On the contrary, China claims that the balloon served “research purposes, mainly meteorological” and that it in no way constituted a military threat to the US. He had described his entry into US airspace as an “accident”, attributing it to reasons of “force majeure”. At the same time, he accused politicians and the media in the United States of taking advantage of the incident to discredit Beijing.
Source: News Beast
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