US military searches for balloon remnants as China urges restraint

BEIJING/WASHINGTON: The US military said on Sunday it is searching for remnants of the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon it shot down a day earlier, while Beijing on Monday urged Washington not to escalate or take further action to harm its interests.

The drama over the balloon, which Beijing again reiterated is a civilian airship that accidentally strayed into US airspace, has further strained already-tense relations and led Washington to cancel a planned visit to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The US Navy is working to recover the balloon and its payload and the Coast Guard is providing security for the operation, General Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and US Northern Command, said on Sunday.

A successful recovery could potentially give the United States insight into China’s spying capabilities, though US officials have downplayed the balloon’s impact on national security.

A US fighter jet shot down the balloon in the Atlantic off South Carolina on Saturday, a response China described as an “obvious overreaction”.

“China firmly opposes and strongly protests against this,” China’s Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng said in remarks to the US embassy in Beijing that were posted on the ministry’s website on Monday morning.

“The Chinese government is closely following the development of the situation,” he said.

The balloon incident comes as the United States and China had sought to bolster communications and begin to mend ties that had been under severe strain in recent years over tensions on several fronts, including US efforts to block Chinese access to key cutting-edge technologies.

China has warned of “serious repercussions” and said it will use the necessary means to deal with “similar situations”, without elaborating, although some analysts said they expect any response to be finely calibrated to keep from making bilateral ties even worse.