The US shot down the Chinese spy balloon with a missile . After Joe Biden's announcement that he would take care of it, the balloon was destroyed over the Atlantic Ocean by order of the president who followed the operation from Air Force One, with which he was traveling to Camp David.
“The spy balloon was successfully shot down,” Biden said, noting that he ordered the operation on Wednesday but waited for a safe place to be reached .
Operations were immediately launched to recover the remains. Shortly before, the Federal Administration Aviation, the American aviation authority, had announced the closure of three airports and part of the airspace of North and South Carolina for "national security initiatives". The Department of Defense had in fact advised Biden not to shoot it down while it was flying over the United States because it would have represented a risk to the population precisely because of the debris.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke of "unacceptable violation of our sovereignty by China" .
The already very tense climate with Beijing is therefore heating up even more, which has tried to tone down, not without reiterating the accusations, to defuse a case that risks creating new problems for the leadership of Xi Jinping. While clarifying that China "will not accept unfounded conjectures" and inviting the Americans not to "defame" it, China had attempted to restore calm despite the fact that a new spy balloon also popped up today in the South American skies .
"We are receiving reports of one in transit in Latin America - said Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder - and we are evaluating whether it is Chinese surveillance". Wang Yi, the powerful head of Chinese diplomacy, has returned to the matter that has already blown up Secretary of State Antony Blinken's mission to Beijing: , the Foreign Ministry put it on paper.
