China says it will “properly handle” the unexpected situation with the US adding that it has no intention of violating the land territory and airspace of any country.
China has that a balloon spotted over American airspace was used for weather research and was blown off course, despite US suspicion it was spying.
The discovery further strained already tense relations between Beijing and Washington.
The Pentagon decided not to shoot down the balloon, which was potentially flying over sensitive sites, because of concerns about hurting people on the ground.
In a statement on Friday, China’s foreign ministry also said that it regretted that the airship had strayed into US airspace.
US officials said they raised the matter with their Chinese counterparts through diplomatic channels.
“We have communicated to them the seriousness with which we take this issue,” a US official said.
On Thursday, Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told reporters that the government was tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon over the continental United States and said it was “traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground”.
US military leaders considered shooting down the balloon over Montana on Wednesday but eventually, President Joe Biden decided against it because of the safety risk from debris, US officials said on Thursday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will postpone his visit to China after the incident, according to media reports on Friday.
Blinken did not want the balloon to dominate his meetings with Chinese officials, ABC News reported, citing an unnamed US official. Bloomberg News also reported the trip will be postponed.
Canada’s defense ministry said a “high-altitude surveillance balloon” was detected and that it was monitoring a “potential second incident,” without giving further details, adding that it was in frequent contact with the United States.
The news initially broke on Thursday as CIA Director William Burns was speaking at an event at Washington’s Georgetown University, where he called China the “biggest geopolitical challenge” facing the United States.
