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China is accusing the U.S. of an “indiscriminate use of force” after President Biden directed the military to shoot down a Chinese surveillance balloon spotted traveling for days through U.S. airspace and floating over sensitive military sites.
Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng said he formally complained to the U.S. Embassy on Sunday over what he called a “U.S. attack on a Chinese civilian unmanned airship by military force.” China has insisted that the aircraft was a civilian weather balloon blown unintentionally off-course.
“However, the United States turned a deaf ear and insisted on indiscriminate use of force against the civilian airship that was about to leave the United States airspace, obviously overreacted and seriously violated the spirit of international law and international practice,” Xie said.
The U.S. shot down the balloon off the coast of the Carolinas on Saturday, after it spent days traversing the country at 60,000 feet, making its way from Alaska and Idaho in the northwest down toward the southeast
Pentagon officials evaluated that the balloon was “clearly crossing over sensitive sites” in its flightpath.
