China warns US of right to retaliate over downed weather balloon
Beijing warned Washington that they have the right to respond, but time will tell what it will be.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry published on its official website a protest against the US actions that led to the destruction of the balloon. Beijing is very unhappy with Washington's decision to destroy the probe, saying that it was an exclusively civilian object, did not pose any threat, and hit American airspace by accident. At the same time, China notified the United States of the emergency. Beijing now reserves the right to retaliate.
China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the details of the "attack" of the American fighter on the balloon appeared. According to CNN, a fifth-generation F-22 fighter was sent from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to neutralize the Chinese weather probe. The pilot raised the plane to a height of 17,7 km, after which he fired at the balloon with one AIM-9X missile, hitting it. The probe itself was much higher, reaching a height of 19,8 km. The wreckage of the balloon fell into the sea off the coast of South Carolina, there is now an operation by the Navy and the US Coast Guard to locate and recover it. The Pentagon intends to prove that the downed probe was a "reconnaissance balloon" with which China monitored US strategic facilities.
The Chinese balloon was first spotted earlier this month over Montana, home to a US Air Force base and nuclear missile silos. After that, the US military concluded that it was intelligence.
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