Republicans have warned that a suspected Chinese spy balloon seen floating high over the northern United States poses a threat to national security and called on President Joe Biden to shoot it down.
Biden asked for a military option to deal with the balloon, but the Pentagon decided against taking the balloon out of concern that the debris could harm people on the ground, officials said Thursday. Pentagon officials said the balloons were traveling “above commercial air traffic and did not pose a military or physical threat to people on the ground.”
However, some GOP lawmakers are calling for a tougher approach.
“Biden should immediately shoot down the Chinese spy balloon. President Trump will never tolerate this,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted on Thursday.
Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who previously served as secretary of the Interior Department under Trump, added: “Shoot. That. Down. The Chinese spy balloon is clearly a provocation. In Montana we don’t bow down. We took it down. Take a shot.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) also fired a letter to the Pentagon with concerns about the results of civilian traffic disruptions in the country. “The government failed to protect our borders and is now failing to protect our skies,” Daines wrote.
Trump then took to his own social media website, writing in a post: “SHOOT BALLOONS.”
The heated rhetoric is just the latest chapter in Republican efforts to characterize Biden and other Democrats as soft on China. Others include attacks on Biden’s son Hunter over his Chinese business ties.
A defense official told The Associated Press that the spy balloon was trying to fly over a US missile field in Montana, but the US thought it would be of “limited” value in providing China with intelligence that could not have been gathered by other means, such as through spies. satellite.
On Friday, China admitted the balloon was its own, but called it a “civilian airship” that exploded.
“The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the aircraft into US airspace due to force majeure. The Chinese side will continue to communicate with the US and deal with this unexpected situation due to force majeure,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. said in the statement.