Beijing accused Washington on Monday of indiscriminate use of force for shooting down a suspected Chinese spy balloon.
Chinese officials said the object that was destroyed after traversing U.S. airspace was a civilian aircraft for meteorological research.
- The U.S. military detected a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon flying over U.S. airspace on Jan. 28.
- A U.S. warplane shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday after it flew over key U.S. military installations.
- China's Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng said he lodged a complaint on Sunday over what he called a "U.S. attack on a Chinese civilian unmanned airship."
- Xie said that Chinese officials had repeatedly told the U.S. the balloon was a civilian aircraft that had accidentally entered U.S. airspace.
- He said the U.S. decision to down the balloon "seriously impacted and damaged both sides’ efforts and progress in stabilizing Sino-U.S. relations.”
- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended Washington's actions, saying: "Any country that has its airspace violated in this way I think would respond similarly," adding that "I can only imagine what the reaction would be in China if they were on the other end.”
