China Spy Balloon Row: US Shoots Down Balloon, China Reacts Strongly

Washington: The US army shot down the Chinese spy balloon seen in America with missile. This action was taken after the order of President Joe Biden. 

China has reacted strongly to the US action and said it would take appropriate action against attack on the unmanned civilian airship.

Removal of debris from sea begins 

The army had made a plan in such a way that the debris of the balloon may fall into the sea, so that the common people would not be harmed. The work of removing the debris of the balloon from the sea has been started.

 The United States shot down the balloon with a missile on Saturday after it had spent the last week traversing the country. With the downing of the balloon, a drama that had caused a diplomatic crisis between the world's two great powers came to an end.

President Biden ordered the U.S. military to shoot down the surveillance craft.

On February 3, Pentagon Brigadier General Pat Ryder had said – We are getting reports that another balloon is coming from Latin America side. Our guess is that this is another spy balloon, also from China.

After this, the Chinese Foreign Ministry had issued a statement saying – China has never violated any country's border or airspace. Some US leaders and media are trying to tarnish the image of China under the guise of this incident. This matter should be resolved peacefully.

China says it could respond

In its first official public reaction to the shooting down of the balloon, China on Sunday condemned the move as an overreaction by the United States and warned that it could respond.

Since the Biden administration confirmed on Thursday that the Chinese balloon was floating over the United States, including Montana with its 150 or so intercontinental ballistic missile silos, the balloon had become another irritant in already tense ties between Beijing and Washington. 

The secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, pulled out of a planned trip to Beijing this week that had been intended to help manage those tensions.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed China's "strong dissatisfaction and protests against the use of force by the United States to attack the unmanned civilian airship."

Instead of responding in a "restrained manner," the Chinese ministry said in its statement, "the United States insisted on using force, clearly overreacting."

'China will resolutely safeguard legitimate rights'

"China will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of relevant enterprises and reserve the right to make further necessary responses," the statement added.

The balloon first entered US airspace over Alaska on January 28 before drifting over Canada and then back into the United States days later.