SANTA MONICA Calif. – The high altitude Chinese spy balloon had been drifting over the United States for days, possibly gathering vast amount of intelligence and information to use against the U.S. and her allies. The world eagerly watched as the United States military timed out the shooting of the alleged spy-craft from the sky.
President Joe Biden approved the shooting down of the Chinese craft days ago. Yet, Biden and his military advisors were concerned that any debris from the falling craft would cause harm to U.S. citizens on the ground. So they waited.
Before 2:39 PM EST on Saturday, two Advanced F-22 jets took off from the Air Force base in Langley, Virginia. They approached the balloon, sometimes referred to as a blimp, and fired a single missile that struck the balloon and sent it crashing into the waters below.
The U.S. Navy and the Coast Guard are now engaged in cleaning up the wreckage in the waters off the coast of South Carolina. As part of the clean-up, they will sort through the remaining debris to determine what equipment, if any, was used for espionage purposes. Or, if in fact it was a weather balloon primarily used for meteorological purposes , as the Chinese government in Beijing claimed.
Beijing condemned the use of force that brought the balloon down. The Chinese Foreign Ministry put out a statement that said, they had repeatedly informed the U.S that the balloon was for civilian use and had entered U.S. airspace by complete accident.
Tensions between the United States and China have escalated recently due to Chinese aggression throughout Asia Pacific. U.S. Secretary of State Blinken, planned to travel to Beijing this weekend but cancelled his trip because of the incident.
Some informational content courtesy of The Hill, Forbes, Time, CNN, The Chinese Foreign Ministry, 10 News First Australia and Youtube.
