Chinese balloon in US skies: Blinken cancels visit to Beijing in protest

Chinese balloon in US skies: The Chinese balloon hovering over the United States is the size of three buses and is laced with a significant number of payloads. Pentagon said the balloon has surveillance capabilities and will probably be around for a few days.

An angry United States has cancelled the Beijing trip of Secretary of State Antony Blinken to mark its protest. Blinken, who would have been the first top American diplomat to visit for China in several years, was to leave on Friday night.

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Biden briefed about airspace violation

President Joe Biden was briefed about the violation of US airspace by China. Keeping its public’s safety in mind, the US has decided against destroying the balloon as of now. However, it said all actions are on table.

"We will continue to monitor it. Right now, we assess that it'll probably be over the United States for a few days, but we'll continue to review our options and keep you updated as we can," Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters at the Department of Defence.

"It's got a large payload underneath the surveillance component, underneath the actual balloon piece of it," Ryder said, adding that the surveillance balloon has maneuverability capabilities. Right now at this point, it's moving eastward across the United States, currently over about the central United States, he said.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the US has noted the Chinese statement of regret. "But the presence of this balloon in our airspace, it is a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law, and it is unacceptable that this occurred," she said.

No military or physical threat

Both the White House and the Pentagon said that it does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground. "President Biden was briefed. He has asked the military to present options. It was the strong recommendation by (Defence) Secretary (Lloyd) Austin, Chairman Milley, the commander of Northern Command not to take kinetic action because of the risk to safety and security of the people on the ground," Jean-Pierre said.

"We do know that it is a surveillance balloon. In terms of the size, I'm not able to get into the specifics other than to say that it is big enough that, again, in reviewing our approach we do recognise that any potential debris field would be significant and potentially cause civilian injuries or deaths or significant property damage," Ryder said.

"This is part of the calculus in terms of our overall assessment, but again, we'll continue to monitor it. We'll continue to review our options and keep you updated as able," he said.

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