BEIJING/WASHINGTON - China’s defence ministry on Sunday protested against the US “attack” of an unmanned Chinese airship in the United States, saying that it was an “obvious overreaction”.

China reserves the right to use the necessary means to deal with similar situations, said Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, a ministry spokesman, without elaborating.

Earlier on Sunday, China’s foreign ministry also blasted the Pentagon’s decision and accused the US of “clearly overreacting and seriously violating international practice”.

“China expresses strong dissatisfaction and protests against the use of force by the United States to attack the unmanned civilian airship,” the foreign ministry said, adding that it would “reserve the right to make further necessary responses”.

A US military fighter aircraft had shot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon as it floated off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, drawing to a close a dramatic saga that shone a spotlight on worsening Sino-US relations.

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin called the operation a “deliberate and lawful action” that came in response to China’s “unacceptable violation of our sovereignty”.

President Joe Biden said he had issued an order on Wednesday to take down the balloon, but the Pentagon had recommended waiting until it could be done over open water to safeguard civilians from debris crashing down to earth from thousands of metres above commercial air traffic.

“They successfully took it down, and I want to compliment our aviators who did it,” Mr Biden said.

Multiple fighter and refuelling aircraft were involved in the mission, but only one – an F-22 fighter jet from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia – took the shot at 2.39pm (3.39am on Sunday, Singapore time), using a single AIM-9X supersonic, heat-seeking, air-to-air missile, a senior US military official said.

The balloon was shot down about six nautical miles off the US coast, over relatively shallow water, potentially aiding efforts to recover key elements of the Chinese surveillance equipment among the debris in the coming days, officials said.

One US military official said the debris field was spread out over seven miles (11km) of ocean, and multiple US military vessels were on site.

The shoot-down came shortly after the US government ordered a halt to flights in and out of three South Carolina airports – Wilmington, Myrtle Beach and Charleston – due to what it said at the time was an undisclosed “national security effort”. The flights resumed on Saturday afternoon.

In its statement, the Chinese foreign ministry said it had “clearly requested that the US properly handle the matter in a calm, professional and restrained manner”.

“China will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of relevant enterprises and reserve the right to make further necessary responses,” the ministry added.

While the shoot-down concludes the military dimension to the spying saga, Mr Biden is likely to continue to face intense political scrutiny from Republican opponents in Congress who argue he failed to act quickly enough. 

A senior US administration official said on Sunday that after the balloon was shot down, the US government spoke directly with China about the action. The State Department also briefed allies and partners around the world, the official said.

Questions also remain about how much information China may have gathered during the balloon’s trek across the US. 

The balloon first entered US airspace on Jan 28 before moving into Canadian airspace on Monday Jan 30. It then re-entered US airspace on Jan 31, a US defence official said. Once it crossed over US land, it did not return to the open waters, making a shoot-down difficult.

US officials did not publicly disclose the balloon’s presence over the US until Thursday.

“It’s clear the Biden administration had hoped to hide this national security failure from Congress and the American people,” said US Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican who leads the House Armed Services Committee. 

Mr Biden’s emphasis on Saturday that – days ago – he ordered the balloon shot down as soon as possible could be an effort to respond to such critics. 

Former president Donald Trump, Mr Biden’s potential rival in the 2024 election, called last week for the balloon to be shot down, and has sought to portray himself as stronger than Mr Biden on China.

The US’ relationship with China is likely to be a major theme of the 2024 presidential race. 

Washington had notified Beijing about the shoot-down on Saturday, a US official said.

Still, officials on Saturday appeared to play down the balloon’s impact on US national security. 

“Our assessment – and we’re going to learn more as we pick up the debris – was that it was not likely to provide significant additive value over and above other (Chinese) intel capability, such as satellites in low-earth orbit,” the senior US defence official said.

A Reuters photographer who witnessed the shoot-down said a stream came from a jet and hit the balloon, but there was no explosion. It then began to fall, the photographer said.

China had expressed regret on Friday that an “airship” used for civilian meteorological and other scientific purposes had strayed into US airspace.

On Saturday, China’s foreign ministry said that the flight of the “airship” over the US was a force majeure accident, and accused US politicians and media of taking advantage of the situation to discredit Beijing.

The Pentagon assesses that this balloon was part of a fleet of Chinese spy balloons. On Friday, it said another Chinese balloon was flying over Latin America. 

“Over the past several years, Chinese balloons have previously been spotted over countries across five continents, including in East Asia, South Asia and Europe,” the US official said.

The suspected Chinese spy balloon prompted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a visit to China that had been expected to start on Friday.

The postponement of Mr Blinken’s trip, which had been agreed to in November by Mr Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, is a blow to those who saw it as an overdue opportunity to stabilise an increasingly fractious relationship between the two countries.

China is keen for a stable US relationship so it can focus on its economy, battered by the now-abandoned zero-Covid policy and neglected by foreign investors alarmed by what they see as a return of state intervention in the market. AFP, REUTERS