On Saturday, military planes knocked down a similar balloon in US airspace, claiming it was being used for spying.
The Chinese Communist Party verified last week that the balloon floating above the US was Chinese, and that it was a civilian meteorological balloon that had been blown off course. However, this allegation was widely disputed by US military authorities.
In a written statement, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III stated that the balloon was deployed to spy on key installations in the mainland United States and that it was brought down above U.S. territorial seas.
According to a senior defense official, while the balloon did not constitute a military or physical threat, its entry into American airspace was a breach of American sovereignty. The official disputed that the balloon was a runaway weather balloon, as claimed by the Chinese. He said it was a surveillance balloon monitoring key military facilities.
The US is currently taking efforts to retrieve the balloon and prevent critical data from being collected. The US Navy and Coast Guard have set up a security cordon around the region where the balloon landed and are searching for debris. Because the balloon landed in a shallow location, the recovery effort should be quite simple.
Local officials in North and South Carolina have issued cautions to residents not to handle any debris from the alleged Chinese spy balloon and have advised them to call local authorities if debris from the balloon washes ashore.
