US searches for wreckage of suspected Chinese spy balloon

• The US suspects the balloon was spying on key military facilities.
• Its discovery triggered a diplomatic crisis.
• The Chinese government claimed it was a weather ship gone awry.

US Navy divers are working to recover the wreckage of the Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina.

America’s former top military general predicted that it would happen swiftly enough for scientists to begin analyzing its technology.

On Saturday, fighter jets brought the craft down over US territorial waters, scattering debris across a large region.

The US suspects the balloon was spying on key military facilities.

Its discovery triggered a diplomatic crisis, prompting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel his trip to China this weekend.

The Chinese government denied it was used for spying and claimed it was a weather ship gone awry.

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Purposely released the balloon

Admiral Mike Mullen, former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, claimed on Sunday that the Chinese military may have purposely released the balloon to disrupt Mr. Blinken’s trip to China. His visit would have been the first high-level meeting between the United States and China in years.

Adm Mullen rejected China’s suggestion it might have blown off course, saying it was maneuverable because “it has propellers on it”.

“This was not an accident. This was deliberate. It was intelligence,” he added.

Politicians from the Republican Party. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has been accused of dereliction of duty for allowing the balloon to travel freely around the country.

Brazen effort

Marco Rubio, the vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, told it was a “brazen effort” by China to embarrass the president ahead of his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

Brenda Bethune, the mayor of Myrtle Beach which is near where the object was shot down, said: “I do have concerns about how the federal government can allow a foreign adversary to fly uninterrupted from Montana to our doorstep.”

She expressed optimism that the administration would explain what happened and how it will be avoided in the future.

Martin Willis stated that he was near Myrtle Beach when he witnessed the fighter jet fire down the suspected spy balloon.

He told he couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. “It was really exciting. It felt very historic,” he said.

Police have asked residents not to touch or move any debris they come across. “Tampering could interfere with [the] investigation,” according to the Horry County Police Department.

The object’s fragments landed in 47ft (14m) of water, which is shallower than officials predicted, and are spread out over seven miles (11km).

Explaining the decision to shoot the balloon down, a US defense official said in a statement, that “while we took all necessary steps to protect against the PRC [China] surveillance balloon’s collection of sensitive information, the surveillance balloon’s overflight of US territory was of intelligence value to us”.

 Strong dissatisfaction from the Chinese government

China’s foreign ministry expressed “strong dissatisfaction and protest against the US’s use of force to attack civilian unmanned aircraft”.

In a written statement, the Chinese government said it would “resolutely safeguard” the rights and interests of the company operating the balloon and that it reserved the right to “make further responses if necessary”.

Mr. Biden approved the plan to bring down the balloon on Wednesday but decided to wait until it was over water to avoid endangering people on the ground.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily halted all civilian flights at three airports along the South Carolina coast and recommended mariners avoid the area.

The event has strained relations between China and the United States, with the Pentagon calling it an “unacceptable infringement” of US sovereignty.

According to US military officials, a second Chinese surveillance balloon was detected above Latin America on Friday. On the same day, Colombia’s Air Force reported that an identifiable object, believed to be a balloon, was discovered above 55,000 feet in the country’s airspace on 3 February.

It claims it followed the object until it departed the airspace and that it posed no threat to national security.

China has not publicly commented on the second balloon.

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