The Biden administration on Friday disputed Chinese officials’ claims that a suspected spy balloon discovered in U.S. airspace is merely a civilian airship that was blown off course.
Chinese officials confirmed Friday that the balloon is indeed theirs, but claimed it’s a civilian airship used for weather research.
“The airship is from China. It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes,” a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure.”
However, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said Friday, “We know that it’s a surveillance balloon,” but added that he would be unable to share more information than that.
“We do know that the balloon has violated U.S. airspace and international law which is unacceptable so we’ve conveyed this directly to the [People’s Republic of China] at multiple levels,” he said, adding that while he could not give a specific location for the balloon, that it is “moving eastward at this time.”
A senior defense official told NBC the balloon entered the U.S. over Alaska before flying over Canada and making its way to Montana, where it was seemingly surveilling Malmstrom Air Force Base, which is home to nuclear-missile silos.
The balloon entered U.S. airspace on Tuesday and is flying far above the altitude at which commercial aircraft fly.
Asked during a press briefing why the U.S. does not take down the spy balloon, since it is violating U.S. airspace, Ryder replied: “We assessed that it does not pose a risk to people on the ground as it is traversing the continental United States.”
Earlier on Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed his planned trip to China as the U.S. investigates the balloon.
The decision came just hours before Blinken was set to depart for a weekend diplomatic trip to China. Blinken and President Biden decided it was best to postpone the trip, officials told the Associated Press.
On Thursday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy demanded a Gang-of-Eight briefing on the balloon.
“China’s brazen disregard for U.S. sovereignty is a destabilizing action that must be addressed, and President Biden cannot be silent,” McCarthy tweeted. “I am requesting a Gang of Eight briefing,” he added, referring to a group that includes the top two leaders of the House and Senate and the top two leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees.
One official told the Washington Post that staffers in each of those offices were briefed on Thursday and that “additional meetings had been offered.”
At least two Republican lawmakers urged the Biden administration to shoot the balloon down, including Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Ryan Zinke of Montana.
“We should have shot it down,” Zinke told the Daily Caller. “It’s embarrassing. Because the US faces clear and present danger with the Chinese and we can’t shoot down a balloon over rural Montana?”
“The Chinese did not do this on accident,” he added. “So to me, it was a poke in the eye. But also, I think it’s inexcusable that we allowed a balloon, unopposed to come in and basically over America. And I’m sensitive to it because it’s over Montana and then they said, well, we evaluated it, but we decided not to on the basis of potential civilian casualties in Roosevelt County, you know, or the Aleutian chain. I don’t buy it.”
Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, said Roosevelt County is a sparsely populated area, so there is no reason the balloon could not be shot down.
President Biden had initially ordered the balloon to be shot down, according to the Wall Street Journal, but the Pentagon worried that could cause civilian casualties. Top military officials urged Biden “not to take kinetic action due to the risk to safety and security of people on the ground from the possible debris field,” Politico reported. The officials found the balloon does not “pose a significantly enhanced threat on the intelligence side.”
“We had been looking at whether there was an option yesterday over some sparsely populated areas in Montana,” a senior Defense official told the outlet. “But we just couldn’t buy down the risk enough to feel comfortable recommending shooting it down yesterday.”
Senator Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Pentagon “failed to act with urgency” and said the spy balloon “should be dealt with appropriately.”
Republican Senator Steve Daines of Montana sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday calling the Chinese balloon a “concerning event” and demanding answers.
He added that the “fact that this balloon was occupying Montana airspace creates significant concern that Malmstrom Air Force Base (AFB) and the United State’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fields are the targets of this intelligence gathering mission.”
“Given the increased hostility and destabilization around the globe aimed at the United States and our allies, I am alarmed by the fact that this spy balloon was able to infiltrate the airspace of our country and Montana,” he added.
Democratic Montana Senator Jon Tester “is monitoring this situation closely and will continue to receive updates from DOD,” a spokesperson for Tester told Fox News.
Representative Matt Rosendale (R., Mont.) told Fox News it is “unacceptable to allow communist China to invade our airspace — this is another clear example of Chinese aggression.”
“President Biden must start putting the American people first and recognize that China is a threat to our freedom, values, and way of life,” he added.