Authorised Pentagon to shoot down Chinese spy balloon days ago, says Biden as critics slam him for policy blunder
The Chinese surveillance balloon that travelled across the continental US is being seen by the critics of the administration as the latest embarrassment to attack Biden's foreign policy
US President Joe Biden. AP
New York: US President Joe Biden said he gave the order to shoot a Chinese spy balloon on Wednesday but military officials waited until Saturday to do so.
“I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down on Wednesday as soon as possible,” Biden said.
“They said to me let’s wait for the safest place to do it,” he added.
Why Pentagon delayed shooting down Chinese spy balloon?
The US President said, “They (the Pentagon) decided without doing any damage to people on the ground they decided that the best time to do that was when it got over water outside within a 12 mile limit.”
Biden lauded the Pentagon for “successfully” taking down the Chinese surveillance balloon and said, “I want to compliment our aviators who did it.”
“On Wednesday, President Biden gave his authorization to take down the surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path,” US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin acknowledged.
Austin further said that after “careful analysis”, US military commanders had determined downing the balloon “while over land posed an undue risk to people across a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload”.
Austin also said the shoot down of the Chinese spy balloon was lawful and proper, considering the intrusion into the American airspace “to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States.”
A US defense official said that the decision to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon was made keeping in mind an abundance of caution and that the fundamental calculation was based on the safety of Americans on the ground and not the intelligence value.
On Saturday, a Chinese spy balloon, almost of the size of three buses, that transited through the US airspace was shot down by an F-22 fighter jet from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia using a single AIM-9X supersonic, heat-seeking, air-to-air missile.
Don’t Miss: Chinese spy balloons entered multiple times in US, went ‘undetected’
The Chinese spy balloon first entered US airspace on 28 January and moved largely over land across Alaska before moving into Canadian airspace on 30 January. It re-entered US airspace on 31 January, a US defense official said.
‘Chinese spy balloon Biden’s latest policy blunder’
The Chinese surveillance balloon that travelled across the continental US is being seen by the critics of the administration as the latest embarrassment to attack Biden’s foreign policy.
Allowing the Chinese spy balloon to cross the US is “another example of weakness by the Biden administration,” said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers.
“Now, the White House must provide answers about why they decided to allow a CCP (Chinese Communist Party) spy balloon to cross the US and what damage to our national security occurred from this decision,” Rogers said.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green said it was “indefensible that this threat was eliminated only after great public outcry and the damage to US national security and American sovereignty was already done.”
Green termed the incident to be the latest in a number of failures by the Biden administration.
Green further said the fact remains that Biden, when faced with the opportunity to protect the homeland from adversaries, “chose yet again to demonstrate weakness on the global stage.”
“From the Southern border to Afghanistan and, now, Chinese surveillance directly above our homes and sensitive military installations, this President shows he is not interested in protecting American interests,” Green added.
The Biden administration has been under fire for its handling of the migrant crisis. Republican linked the border crisis to the balloon saga, with Rep. Ben Cline R-Van in a tweet saying, “Joe Biden *finally* shooting down the Chinese spy balloon is like closing the southern border after over 1.2 million illegally escaped into our country.”
“The CCP spy balloon is the story of the Biden presidency. See problem. Shrug. Rely on spin from MSM to diminish ineptitude,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said.
Before the Chinese spy balloon was shot on Saturday, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., argued that the incident was a “tremendous embarrassment for the USA”.
“It’s one more example of the weakness of the Biden administration on the global stage. Their lack of response, the show of weakness…is provoking our adversaries and making America weaker,” he added.
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