China says will ‘safeguard interests’ over balloon shootdown

China has said the civilian balloon - some 200 feet tall, according to US officials - was used for meteorological research and had strayed from its predetermined path

Beijing: China will “resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests” over the shooting down of a Chinese balloon, suspected to have been spying on sensitive US installations, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Tuesday as the already tenuous bilateral ties become further tense.

The remnants of a large balloon drift above the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of South Carolina, with a fighter jet and its contrail seen below it, on Saturday. (AP)

China has said the civilian balloon - some 200 feet tall, according to US officials - was used for meteorological research and had strayed from its predetermined path.

The Chinese government, however, has refused to share details including to which government department or company the balloon belonged.

The “unmanned airship” posed no threat and entered US airspace accidentally, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning said on Tuesday.

Accidentally or not, the incident prompted US secretary of state, Antony Blinken to cancel a visit to Beijing this week, further dampening Sino-US ties.

Mao was responding to remarks by US Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby, who declared that the US does not intend to return the balloon’s debris.

“Mao stressed that the airship’s entry into US airspace due to force majeure was totally unexpected and accidental, and posed no threat to US personnel or national security,” the state-run website of the national English channel, CGTN, said in a report.

Mao repeated that the US should have handled the incident in a “calm and professional” manner and said Washington’s reaction was very exaggerated.

When asked whether China had asked the US to return the debris of the balloon, Mao said: “The airship does not belong to the US. It belongs to China.”

“The Chinese government will continue to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” Mao, according to CGTN, said at the daily ministry briefing on Tuesday without giving further details.

Separately, the state-run tabloid, Global Times accused the US of being “unscrupulous” in its dealings with China.

“Analysts said that while politicians in Washington have been talking big about putting up “guardrails” for China-US relations, they are actually doing the opposite, as some of them are becoming increasingly unscrupulous in challenging China’s bottom line and making waves across the Taiwan Straits,” the tabloid said in an opinion piece on Tuesday.

“The way the US dealt with the balloon incident also added more uncertainties to the already turbulent China-US relationship amid narrowing channels of communication,” the Global Times opinion piece added.