The US transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, on Sunday rejected Republican criticism of Joe Biden over an eight-day wait to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon which flew over US military sites.
“The president gave instructions to have it shot down in a way that was safe,” Buttigieg told CNN’s State of the Union, of the operation off the Carolina coast on Saturday.
“The debris field that was created by this balloon which was shot down, it’s about seven miles long. And so any time the military is considering an option, they have to consider the safety of the American people.”
But Marco Rubio of Florida, the Republican vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, was not in conciliatory mood.
He told CNN: “Why didn’t they take action? At this time, that’s number one. I think the other thing that we need to know about is why did it take so long for them to disclose this to the American public?”
China insisted the flyover was an accident involving a civilian aircraft, a weather research “airship” blown off course. The Pentagon rejected that, as well as China’s contention the ballon had limited navigational ability.
China also said it reserved the right to “take further actions”, criticising the US for “an obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice”.
On Sunday, China’s ministry of foreign affairs said “China will resolutely uphold the relevant company’s legitimate rights and interests, and at the same time reserv[e] the right to take further actions in response”. The ministry of defense said it “reserves the right to take necessary measures to deal with similar situations”.
The incident prompted the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, to cancel a Beijing trip.
US officials said the balloon entered the US air defense zone north of the Aleutian Islands on 28 January and moved across Alaska and into Canadian airspace. It crossed Idaho on Tuesday, the day the White House said Biden was briefed.
The balloon was spotted on Wednesday over Montana, home to Malmstrom Air Force Base, which has fields of nuclear missile silos. The US was able to learn how the balloon moved and what it was capable of surveilling, said two senior defense officials who briefed reporters.
The officials said the US military concluded the balloon didn’t give the Chinese significant intelligence beyond what it could already obtain from satellites, though the US took steps to mitigate what it could gather.
Biden wanted the balloon downed on Wednesday but was advised to wait for when it was over water, the officials said, after it was determined bringing it down over land from 60,000ft would pose an undue risk.
The balloon was spotted on Saturday over the Carolinas. The Federal Aviation Administration closed airspace, rerouting air traffic and warning of delays.
Buttigieg said the FAA “worked very closely with the Pentagon … and the operation was put in place without pain, damage or injury to any Americans, lives or property”.
At about 2.39pm ET, an F-22 fighter jet fired a missile, puncturing the balloon about six nautical miles off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, officials said. Television footage showed a small explosion, followed by the deflated balloon descending like a ribbon.
The debris landed in 47ft of water, shallower than expected. The recovery operation included several ships. Officials estimated recovery would be completed swiftly.
“They successfully took it down and I want to compliment our aviators who did it,” Biden said.
But Republicans were critical.
“Allowing a spy balloon from the Communist Party of China to travel across the entire continental United States before contesting its presence is a disastrous projection of weakness by the White House,” said Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the top Republican on the Senate armed services committee.
On Sunday, Rubio said: “I think it isn’t a coincidence that this happens leading up to the State of the Union address [on Tuesday], leading up to Blinken’s visit to China. The Chinese knew this was going to be spotted. They knew we were going to have to react. They flew it over military installations and sensitive sites, right across the middle [of the country].
“… It’s a diagonal shot right to the middle of continental United States and the message embedded in this to the world is, ‘We can fly a balloon over airspace of the United States of America and they won’t be able to do anything about it.’”
Officials said Chinese spy balloons crossed into US airspace at least three times during the Trump administration and at least one other time during Biden’s time as president, if not for so long.
Rubio said the recent flight was “unprecedented. And that’s why everyone’s reacting the way they’re reacting. We’ve never seen this.”
China, Rubio claimed, wanted to tell other nations that “America can’t do anything about … a balloon from flying over US airspace, because America is not going to come to your aid when we invade Taiwan or take land from India or take islands from the Philippines and Japan”.
Chinese claims of responding in kind were “silly talk”, he said.
Officials said the balloon was part of a fleet and could be maneuvered remotely. One official said they carry equipment not usually associated with meteorological or civilian research. The Pentagon has acknowledged reports of a second balloon over Latin America.
China sought to play down the cancellation of Blinken’s trip.
“In actuality, the US and China have never announced any visit, the US making any such announcement is their own business, and we respect that,” the foreign ministry said.
Blinken said he told a senior Chinese diplomat, Wang Yi, that sending the balloon was “an irresponsible act and that [China’s] decision to take this action on the eve of my visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions that we were prepared to have”.
