Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China condemned this decision US government shoot down a Chinese balloon which had entered US airspace in previous days, confirming that it was not serving a military purpose.

At the same time, he accused Washington of “an overreaction and a serious violation of international practice.”

“China expresses strong displeasure and protest against the use of force by the United States,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement, saying it “reserves the right” to respond.

According to a senior US Pentagon official, the balloon was shot down about six nautical miles off the US coast. He was hit by an AIM-9X missile fired from an F-22 fighter, and there was no collateral damage or danger to civilians, he said.

The Chinese balloon entered US airspace on January 28, crossed Canadian airspace on the 30th, and returned to US airspace the next day. The US military will seek to retrieve the balloon’s payload. According to the official, the wreckage is scattered within a radius of 11 kilometers.

In a statement by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, it is emphasized that this particular balloon was used by China in an attempt to monitor US strategic facilities.

Instead, Beijing claims that the balloon served “research purposes, mainly meteorological” and that it did not pose a military threat to the US in any way. He called his entry into US airspace an “accident”, explaining this as “force majeure”. At the same time, he accused politicians and the media in the US of using the incident to vilify China.

Source: AFP, Xinhua, Reuters, APE-MPE.