The alleged surveillance balloon, according to the Chinese foreign ministry, was diverted from its intended course and was primarily used for weather monitoring.
China’s foreign ministry has apologised for what it called a civilian balloon that erred and entered American airspace.
The ministry claimed in a statement on Friday that the balloon that the US believed was being used for surveillance was actually a civilian “airship” that was being used for research, primarily for meteorological purposes.
According to the statement, the airship has little ability to steer and “deviated far from its planned course” due to winds.
The Pentagon had earlier said it was “tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon”.
It decided not to shoot down the balloon, which was potentially flying over sensitive sites, because of concerns of hurting people on the ground.
Reporting from the White House in Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said that the balloon was first spotted by bystanders in the state of Montana.
“It was spotted by people on the ground who were wondering what was in the sky. That is how the US government first learned about this, incredibly,” she said. “It was then that the US government started tracking it.”
“There are going to have to be some answers as to why it was bystanders who first spotted this and not the military or the US government,” added Halkett.
Trip to Beijing
The news came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was expected to make his first trip to Beijing this weekend. The visit has not been formally announced, and it was not immediately clear if the balloon’s discovery would affect his travel plans.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning had earlier said she had no information on the trip. But she added China had “no intention of violating the territory and airspace of any sovereign country” and urged for calm while the facts were established.
Blinken would be the highest-ranking member of President Joe Biden’s administration to visit China, on a mission to mitigate a sharp downturn in relations between the countries amid trade disputes and concerns about Beijing’s increasingly aggressive stance towards Taiwan and in the South China Sea.
A senior US defence official told Pentagon reporters on Thursday that the US had “very high confidence” that the object spotted over its airspace in recent days was a Chinese high-altitude balloon and that it was flying over sensitive sites to collect information.
The official, who had spoken on condition of anonymity, had confirmed that one of the places the balloon was spotted was Montana, which is home to one of the nation’s three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
The official also said the US had assessed the balloon had “limited” value in terms of providing intelligence that could not be obtained by other technologies, such as spy satellites.
Previous sightings
Separately, Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said similar balloon activity has been seen in the past several years and the government had taken steps to ensure no sensitive information was stolen.
He said the balloon was travelling well above the height commercial aircraft fly at and did not present a threat to people on the ground.
Biden was briefed and asked the military to present options, according to a senior administration official, who was also not authorised to publicly discuss sensitive information. The senior defence official said the US prepared fighter jets, including F-22s, to shoot down the balloon if ordered.
Defence secretary Lloyd Austin and Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, advised against taking “kinetic action” because of risks to the safety of people on the ground. Biden accepted that recommendation.
Even though the balloon was over a sparsely populated area, its size would create a debris field large enough that it could have put people at risk.
The defence official would not specify the size of the balloon but said commercial pilots could spot it from their cockpits.
China’s brazen disregard for U.S. sovereignty is a destabilizing action that must be addressed, and President Biden cannot be silent.
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) February 3, 2023
I am requesting a Gang of Eight briefing. https://t.co/KarTCUzbOS
The balloon’s appearance adds to national security concerns among US lawmakers about China’s influence in the country, ranging from the prevalence of the hugely popular smartphone app TikTok to purchases of American farmland.
“China’s brazen disregard for US sovereignty is a destabilising action that must be addressed,” Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy tweeted.
