No return to China planned
US secret service evaluates balloon debris
2/7/2023 3:44 am
A Chinese balloon over the United States made headlines for days. In the end, President Biden has the flying object shot down over the sea. According to the White House, the rubble should now be examined in detail. The authorities have already been able to obtain initial information.
US President Joe Biden has defended the downing of the suspected Chinese spy balloon over the sea. At the same time, he rejected allegations made by Republicans in particular that the shooting took place too late. The White House, meanwhile, announced that it was able to obtain intelligence information from the balloon and does not want to return the debris to Beijing.
“The moment he came to the United States from Canada, I told the Department of Defense that I wanted him down as soon as it was appropriate,” Biden told journalists about the balloon. “They said we shouldn’t shoot him down over land. He wasn’t much of a threat and we should wait until he’s over water.” At the same time, Biden made it clear that despite the incident, he did not want to completely break off contact with China.
The overflight of the balloon over the United States had caused a stir, outrage and new tensions between Washington and Beijing in the past few days. Biden finally had the balloon shot down by a fighter jet over the Atlantic Ocean on the US east coast on Saturday when the balloon was no longer over the mainland. The rubble is now being salvaged.
Regarding a possible return of the rubble to China, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said: “I am not aware of any intention or plans to return it.” Measures had already been taken during the balloon’s flight over the United States to limit its espionage capabilities. At the same time, intelligence information was withdrawn from the balloon. “We are still analyzing the information we were able to extract from the balloon before we launched it.”
“Now we’re going to recover the debris and I expect we’ll learn more then,” Kirby added. The forces have already recovered the first parts from the sea surface. Because of the weather conditions, however, diving is difficult. But specialists “would be able to go down there and get a better look at what’s on the bottom of the ocean in the coming days,” Kirby said. The debris field is “quite large”.
After discovering the balloon last week, China said it was a civilian meteorological balloon that had gone off course. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing said on Monday that the shooting down had “seriously impaired and damaged” relations between the People’s Republic and the United States. The United States, on the other hand, has repeatedly confirmed that it was a spy balloon.
The balloon and its launch is likely to be one of the topics at Biden’s annual State of the Union address on Tuesday. The two chambers of Congress meet in Washington for this speech, known as the State of the Union.