The US has said it does not plan to return debris from a Chinese spy balloon shot down by the Pentagon on Saturday to Beijing, even as technical experts have completed an analysis of the ship’s surveillance capabilities.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said there were no plans to return the debris to China, which accused the US of violating the “spirit of international law” by releasing the balloon. Beijing says the plane is being used for civilian meteorological research, a claim Washington denies.
Asked if the U.S. would return parts of the balloons retrieved by navy divers conducting rescue operations off the coast of South Carolina, Kirby said: “I don’t know of any intention to return them.”
In 2001, a US spy plane was forced to make an emergency landing at a Chinese military base on Hainan island after a Chinese fighter jet crashed into the plane in international airspace over the South China Sea. China returned the EP-3 aircraft but only after months of inspection.
One person familiar with the U.S. government’s thinking on the balloon episode said China has not yet asked for its return.
Kirby said the White House rejected Beijing’s claims that the US violated international law, saying they were “clearly” false.
“Actually, that’s why we did it [shot down the balloon] about six miles off the coast, in our territorial airspace, so we can comply with international law,” Kirby said. “Unlike the Chinese, who are not complying with international law by flying in sovereign US airspace.”
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the US would “exploit” parts of the balloon or stored payloads to learn more about the system. He added that the military advised shooting down in water to “make it more likely that we can exploit the wreckage effectively than if it was shot down on land”.
The ballooning episode has hampered the countries’ efforts to set a “floor” in their tumultuous relationship – something US president Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping agreed were needed when they met in Bali in November.
Kirby on Monday stressed that the US remains committed to trying to stabilize US-China relations, which have deteriorated to the worst level since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1979.
“No one wants to see a conflict here,” Kirby said, adding that secretary of state Antony Blinken had only “postponed” a planned trip to China, despite telling Beijing on Friday he was canceling the visit because of the balloon discovery in the US. airspace.
The U.S. Navy is continuing the rescue operation that began shortly after the balloon crashed into the Atlantic on Friday evening.
General Glen VanHerck, head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and US Northern Command, said the balloon was about 200ft high and the payload in the large orb – the part of the system that carries surveillance equipment – was the size of a regional jet.
On Monday afternoon, Costa Rica said the Chinese foreign ministry had apologized through its embassy in San José for the second balloon that flew over the country, saying it “regretted the incident”.
The Chinese embassy reiterated that the balloon was a civilian aircraft that had a “scientific, mainly meteorological” purpose and “suffered a deviation from its scheduled route”, Costa Rica’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
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