Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 get well a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Feb. 5, 2023.
Photo: U.S. Navy
The U.S. Navy on Tuesday released photos showing the recovery of the remnants of a Chinese spy balloon that was shot down over the weekend on the orders of President Joe Biden off the coast of South Carolina.
The photos were taken Sunday, a day after an American fighter jet fired on the 200-foot-tall balloon, sending it hurtling down into the Atlantic Ocean in a dramatic scene caught live to tell the tale TV.
China has claimed that the balloon, which first was spotted by the general public flying over Montana last Wednesday, was a wayward “civilian unmanned airship” that was primarily conducting weather research.
Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 get well a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Feb. 5, 2023.
Photo: U.S. Navy
But Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said the balloon was getting used by China “in an try to surveil strategic sites within the continental United States.”
Five Navy ships were involved in the trouble to get well debris from the balloon over a 10-square-mile search area off the coast of Myrtle Beach.
The debris field was the scale of 1,500 square meters, in keeping with officials, who said the balloon’s payload weighed greater than a ton.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday told reporters that the Biden administration “is other actions that may be taken” in response to the balloon.
Schumer, a Latest York Democrat, said the present state of relations between the U.S. and China is “tense.”
Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 get well a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Feb. 5, 2023.
Photo: U.S. Navy
After the balloon was spotted, but before it was shot down, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken canceled a planned trip to China.
During a hearing on Capitol Hill, Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., said he “loves” Biden but disagreed with the dayslong delay in shooting down the balloon due to time it gave the Chinese to gather additional data and intelligence by the aircraft flying over the U.S.
In response, a witness on the hearing, former National Security Council and National Economic Council member Peter Harrell, said that Blinken’s decision to postpone his trip to China is the beginning of a response, not the top.
Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 get well a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Feb. 5, 2023.
Photo: U.S. Navy
Rep. Ann Wagner, a Missouri Republican, said she and her family watched because the balloon flew over her home state.
“President Biden’s decision to let the [Chinese Communist Party] balloons travel the length and breadth of the US of America was an unpardonable show of weakness on the world stage,” Wagner said.
“I’m calling on the administration to revive America’s ability to discourage reckless provocations. The stakes of strategic competition with China are exceedingly high,” she said. “And if the CCP’s influence continues to spread and unchallenged, American communities pays a price.”
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday that the balloon is suspected of being the fifth Chinese surveillance balloon detected over the continental U.S. since 2017.
Kirby said three of those balloons flew over the U.S. in the course of the Trump administration, while there was one other one during Biden’s tenure within the White House besides this most up-to-date one.
Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 get well a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Feb. 5, 2023.
Photo: U.S. Navy
Former President Donald Trump has said he was never informed that a Chinese balloon had omitted the U.S. when he was in office.
Kirby said the three balloons during Trump’s tenure were only discovered after he left office in January 2021.
— Additional reporting by CNBC’s Amanda Macias.
