Efforts are on to recover the wreckage of the Chinese aircraft. (Representative)
US local media reported on Saturday that in a “national security effort”, three US airports were closed and a suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down off the country’s east coast.
The Pentagon said on Friday that a Chinese balloon roughly the size of three buses had been tracked in US airspace. The Chinese aircraft are believed to have surveillance capabilities.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has canceled his upcoming historic visit to Beijing in a sign of protest against China’s incursion into US airspace.
China said Friday that a “civilian airship” flying over the United States was for meteorological and other scientific purposes and expressed regret that it strayed into US airspace.
On Saturday, US President Joe Biden issued a brief statement saying “we’ll take care of it”. Both the White House and the Pentagon said the Chinese balloon did not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.
Here are the live updates on Chinese balloons in US airspace:
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President Joe Biden congratulated fighter pilots on Saturday for downing a Chinese spy balloon off the East Coast after it flew over the United States for several days.
Biden told reporters in Maryland, “They successfully took it down. And I want to congratulate our aviators who did it.”