The United States has shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon, ending a saga that has drawn attention to deteriorating Sino-American relations, Reuters reported.

President Joe Biden approved a military plan to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon, US officials said, as the government ordered flights off the coast of South Carolina due to what he called “national security measures”.

President Joe Biden said Saturday that he told the Pentagon on Wednesday to shoot down the Chinese balloon as soon as possible and praised those who did so on Saturday.

“On Wednesday, when I was notified of the balloon, I directed the Pentagon to shoot it down as quickly as possible,” the president told reporters in Hagerstown, Maryland.

“We successfully shot it down, and I want to congratulate our airmen who did it,” Biden told reporters.

The Pentagon would recommend shooting down a balloon over water, as a result of which the US shot down a Chinese “spy” balloon over the Atlantic Ocean.

Earlier on Saturday, President Joe Biden said the United States would “take care” of a balloon believed to have been used by the Chinese for espionage, while flights around South Carolina were grounded due to “national security measures.”

Biden made the remarks after being asked whether the United States would shoot down a balloon that flew across the country, which Washington called a “clear violation” of US sovereignty.

Video of the moment of impact of the spy bullet

A clip shared on social media shows the exact moment the interceptor plane approaches the balloon and fires.

China’s alleged surveillance balloon over the United States has raised national security concerns, worsening already strained diplomatic relations.

Air traffic has already been suspended at three airports in the southeastern United States as a “national security measure,” according to the US Civil Aviation Regulatory Authority (FAA), amid controversy over the presence of a Chinese balloon in the country’s airspace.

“The FAA has suspended departures and arrivals at Wilmington (NC), Myrtle Beach International Airport and Charleston (SC) International Airport as part of national security measures adopted by the US Department of Defense,” the FAA said in a statement. talked

Military leaders recommended that it not be shot down while it was over Montana because of the risks of possible debris to people on the ground.

The balloon specifically flew over the state of Montana (in the west), where the nuclear missile mines are located, before heading east.

On Friday, the Pentagon announced that a second Chinese airship had been spotted, this time over Latin America. Beijing said on Saturday that the controversial flight of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the United States was used as a pretext to “slander” China, saying it was used for meteorological research and its trajectory was deviated from.

A modern reconnaissance airship has a camera that hovers over a certain area, carried by wind currents. Equipment attached to the balloons could include radar and run on solar energy, The Guardian notes.

Blinken postponed his visit to China because of the spy balloon

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken even postponed a planned visit to Beijing after an alleged Chinese spy balloon was detected in US airspace, despite Chinese authorities expressing “regret” over what they said was ” inadvertent” intrusion.

“There is currently a high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon flying over the United States, which is a clear and unacceptable violation of American sovereignty,” a senior State Department official said on condition of anonymity.

The Pentagon announced Thursday that it had detected a large balloon over the United States and had no doubt that it came from China and was used for espionage purposes.

The postponement of Blinken’s visit, agreed to by Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in November, is a blow to those who saw it as a belated opportunity to stabilize the increasingly volatile relationship between the two countries.

Read also:

• Why would China use a spy balloon in the age of satellites?
• China says the “airship” flying over the US is just a hot air balloon
• What we know about the Chinese balloon that flew over North America and put the US and Canadian military and intelligence on alert