• Joe Biden does not regret how he handled the Chinese spy balloon.
• Which was shot down over the Atlantic.
• China has denied the balloon was used for spying purposes.

The alleged Chinese spy balloon that sailed over US airspace was not a significant security lapse, according to Joe Biden.

On Thursday, Mr. Biden said on the news program that he does not regret how he handled the circumstance.

After crossing the US, the balloon was shot down over the Atlantic.

The president has come under fire from certain politicians for not destroying it sooner.

“It’s not a major breach,” Mr Biden said, adding that it was “a violation of international law. It’s our airspace. And once it comes into our space, we can do what we want with it”.

He said the military was concerned that destroying the craft over land would have put people on the ground at risk.

“They made a wise decision. They shot it down over water, they’re recovering most of the parts, and they’re good,” he said.

Speaking to the Media, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it would be difficult to say how the US might handle another situation like this one.

“I’m certainly not going to get into how the intelligence community or the Pentagon moves forward with this programme and how they assess,” she said.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution calling the balloon a “brazen violation” of US sovereignty, a move dismissed by China as “purely political manipulation and hyping up”.

“China is strongly dissatisfied with this and firmly opposes it,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters on Friday.

The balloon first entered US airspace on 28 January over Alaska and was shot down last weekend off the coast of South Carolina, where its pieces are still being salvaged by the US Navy.

China has denied the balloon was used for spying purposes, saying it was a weather device gone astray.

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