WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Thursday said he would talk to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in the wake of the US Air Force shooting down what Washington says was a high-tech Chinese spy balloon earlier this month.

“I expect to be speaking with President Xi and… we’re going to get to the bottom of this,” Biden said in his most extensive public remarks since the incident on February 4.

While stressing that the United States is “not looking for a new Cold War,” Biden said he made “no apologies for taking down that balloon.” “We’ll always act to protect the interests of the American people and the security of the American people,” Biden said.

The United States has been in a state of alarm since a huge white balloon from China was spotted tracking over a series of top-secret nuclear weapons sites before being shot down just off the east coast.

The incident has prompted a diplomatic rift, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly cancelling a rare visit to China. Beijing accused Washington of overreacting and claimed that US balloons had overflown Chinese territory, something the Biden administration denies.

“We don’t yet know exactly what these three objects were,” Biden said.

He added that “nothing right now suggests they’re related to China’s spy balloon program,” while the US intelligence community’s current assessment is that they are “most likely balloons tied to private companies” or research projects.

However, “if any object presents a threat to the safety, security (of) the American people, I will take it down,” Biden said.

Recovery of Chinese balloon

The US military said on Friday it had successfully concluded recovery efforts off South Carolina for a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down by a US fighter jet, and the last of the debris was being shipped to a laboratory for analysis.

“Final pieces of debris are being transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory in Virginia for counterintelligence exploitation, as has occurred with the previous surface and subsurface debris recovered,” the US Northern Command said in a statement.

Recovery operations concluded on Thursday and Navy and Coast Guard vessels have left the area and safety perimeters around the site have been lifted, the statement said.

The US military said earlier this week it had recovered all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified as well as large sections of the balloon’s structure.

The Chinese balloon, which Beijing denies was a government spy vessel, spent a week flying over the United States and Canada before being shot down off the Atlantic coast on orders from President Joe Biden.

The episode has strained ties between Washington and Beijing, leading America’s top diplomat to postpone a trip to China.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2023