New Delhi: A day after Beijing confirmed that the balloon flying over Latin America was from China, the United States on Monday ruled out returning the debris of the surveillance balloon to China which was shot down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday.
“I know of no such intention or plans to return it," said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, adding that the US military has "recovered some remnants off the surface of the sea and weather conditions did not permit much undersea surveillance of the debris field."
President Joe Biden said on Monday that the relations between Washington and Beijing were not weakened after the United States shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the weekend.
Asked if the balloon incident weakens U.S.-China relations, Biden said, "No. We made it clear to China what we're going to do. They understand our position. We're not going to back off."
"We did the right thing and it's not a question of weakening or strengthening - it's reality," Biden added.
Initial information gathered from the balloon, the White House said on Monday with confidence, that it is a surveillance balloon. It violated international law and its sovereignty, officials said.
Before it was shot down by a fighter jet on Saturday, Kirby said they had gathered enough vital information about the balloon.
“We're still analysing the information that we were able to collect off of the balloon before we shot it out of the sky and now we're going to recover it and I suspect we may learn even more," he said.
He further stated that the balloon was not merely drifting but had propellers and steering to give a measure of control, even as it was swept along in high-altitude jet stream winds.
"It is true that this balloon had the ability to maneuver itself -- to speed up, to slow down and to turn. So it had propellers, it had a rudder, if you will, to allow it to change direction," Kirby said.
According to General Glen VanHerck, Commander of Northern Command, the balloon was up to 200 feet in height. It carried a payload weighing several thousand pounds, roughly the size of a regional jet aircraft, he said.
“China's, we believe, irresponsible action was visible for the American and the world to see. Not only that at the same time a second PRC surveillance balloon was seen traversing Latin America,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at her daily news conference.
“It is up to China to show it is serious about its words of being a responsible country that it wants to build on the meeting that the president had with President Xi very recently. So it's up to China to figure out what kind of relationship that they want,” she added.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to depart Washington for Beijing late Friday. However, according to AP, he confirmed telling a senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on a phone call that sending the balloon over the US was “an irresponsible act and that (China’s) decision to take this action on the eve of my visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions that we were prepared to have.”
“Job one is getting it out of our airspace. We continue to believe that having open lines of communication is important. Indeed, this incident only underscores the importance, and that's why we will maintain them. That's why, when conditions permit, I plan to go to China. But the most important thing right now is to see that this surveillance asset gets out of our airspace, and we'll take it from there,” Blinken told reporters at a news conference, reported PTI.