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US military searches for balloon remnants as China urges restraint
A US fighter jet shot down the balloon in the Atlantic off South Carolina on Saturday, a response China described as an “obvious overreaction”.
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he United States military said on Sunday it was searching for remnants of the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon it shot down a day earlier, while Beijing on Monday urged Washington not to escalate or take further action to harm its interests.
The drama over the balloon, which Beijing again reiterated was a civilian airship that accidentally strayed into US airspace, has further strained already-tense relations and led Washington to cancel a planned visit to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The US Navy was working to recover the balloon and its payload, and the Coast Guard was providing security for the operation, Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and US Northern Command, said on Sunday.
A successful recovery could potentially give the US insight into China’s spying capabilities, though US officials have downplayed the balloon’s impact on national security.
A US fighter jet shot down the balloon in the Atlantic off South Carolina on Saturday, a response China described as an “obvious overreaction”.
“China firmly opposes and strongly protests against this,” China’s Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng said in remarks to the US embassy in Beijing, which were posted on the ministry’s website on Monday morning.
“The Chinese government is closely following the development of the situation,” he said.
The balloon incident comes as the US and China had sought to bolster communications and begin to mend ties that had been under severe strain in recent years over tensions on several fronts, including US efforts to block Chinese access to key cutting-edge technologies.
China has warned of “serious repercussions” and said it will use the necessary means to deal with “similar situations”, without elaborating, although some analysts said they expected any response to be finely calibrated to keep from making bilateral ties even worse.
Brokerage ING said in a Monday note that the incident could exacerbate the “tech war” and would have negative near-term impact on the Chinese yuan.
“Both sides will likely impose more export bans on technology in different industries. This is a new threat to supply chain disruption, although the risk of logistical disruption from COVID restrictions has now disappeared,” ING said.
“This new risk is more of a long-term risk than an imminent one,” it said.
