Balloon Recovery Begins as US Weighs What China Knew

The US has started to recover some parts from the Chinese balloon that an American F-22 fighter jet shot down off the coast of South Carolina, as Biden administration officials said the US was still trying to figure out how much senior leaders in Beijing knew about the alleged spy mission.

The debris field where the balloon and its payload came down is about 15 American football fields long and the same distance wide, and the US is doing a survey of the site and retrieving wreckage, General Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, told a briefing Monday. He said one concern was whether the equipment carries explosives or other hazardous materials.

Those were among new details that the administration disclosed about the balloon two days after it was shot down. VanHerck said the balloon was a “maneuverable platform” and the administration gained a better sense of what it could do during the time it moved across the US.

“They utilized their maneuverability to strategically position themselves to utilize the winds to traverse portions of countries that they want to see,” VanHerck said of China. “But this gave us the opportunity to assess what they were actually doing, what kind of capabilities existed on the balloon, what kind of transmission capabilities existed.”

The latest information only deepened the administration’s conviction that the balloon wasn’t simply a weather-monitoring device as Chinese officials have claimed. In a briefing Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning repeated China’s assertion that the balloon that passed over US territory last week was an “isolated incident.”

In a sign of more tension to come, the Chinese Foreign Ministry sharpened its tone Sunday after the American F-22 popped the balloon with a Sidewinder missile and sent its payload crashing into the Atlantic Ocean. Beijing called the decision a “clear overreaction” and said it reserved the right to respond.

“China will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the company concerned, and reserves the right to make further responses if necessary,” Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng said, according to a Foreign Ministry statement released Monday. Xie lodged a formal diplomatic protest with the US Embassy in Beijing, the ministry said.

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