'If a similar situation...': China warns of 'necessary' action after US pops its balloon

In response to the US' decision to shoot down its high-altitude balloon on Saturday off the coast of South Carolina, which the US claimed was being used for surveillance, China retorted, saying it “reserves the right” to deal with “similar situations”. “The US used force to attack our civilian unmanned airship, which is an obvious overreaction. We express solemn protest against this move by the US side,” China’s Defense Ministry spokesperson Tan Kefei said in a statement on Sunday afternoon local time, accessed by CNN. China “reserves the right to use necessary means to deal with similar situations,” he added.

"The US used military force to attack our civilian balloon, which is clearly an overreaction," the ministry said in a statement on WeChat.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry had earlier on Sunday accused the US of “overreacting” and “seriously violating international practice,” after US military fighter jets on Saturday shot down the balloon over the Atlantic Ocean in a mission President Joe Biden hailed as a success. An F-22 Raptor fighter from the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, fired one AIM-9X Sidewinder missile at the balloon. The balloon fell approximately six miles off the coast in about 47 feet of water. "No one was hurt," said a US Defence department statement.

"This afternoon, at the direction of President Biden, US fighter aircraft assigned to US Northern Command successfully brought down the high altitude surveillance balloon launched by and belonging to the People's Republic of China (PRC) over the water off the coast of South Carolina in US airspace," US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said in the statement. Austin added that US President Joe Biden gave his authorization to take down the surveillance balloon "as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon's path."

“The Chinese side has repeatedly informed the US side after verification that the airship is for civilian use and entered the US due to force majeure – it was completely an accident,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry had said earlier. China also responded that it reserved the right to “take further actions” and criticized the US for “an obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice.” On Sunday, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that “China will resolutely uphold the relevant company’s legitimate rights and interests, and at the same time reserving the right to take further actions in response.”

Blinken postpones Beijing visit

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed his planned high-stakes weekend diplomatic trip to China citing the discovery of the high altitude balloon, reported AP. The development came just before Blinken had been due to depart Washington for Beijing and marked a new blow to already strained US-Chinese relations.

Blinken’s long-anticipated meetings with senior Chinese officials had been seen in both countries as a way to find some areas of common ground at a time of major disagreements over Taiwan, human rights, China’s claims in the South China Sea, North Korea, Russia’s war in Ukraine, trade policy and climate change.

Although the trip, which was agreed to in November by President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a summit in Indonesia, had not been formally announced.