a surveillance craft. the pentagon claims the balloon was being used to spy on strategic sites across the country. china s foreign ministry has condemned the move . they maintain, it was a civilian weather balloon that had blown off course. president joe biden authorized fighter aircraft to take it down. one day when i was break down the balloon or the pentagon this year to down, i want the as soon as possible, decided without doing damage to anyone on the ground and decided that the best time to do that was we got over water within our, within 12 mile limit as successfully took it down and i want a complimentary graders or did it. and we ll have more to report on a little later. thank you. i was back on tuesday and the recommendation from you was funny and that s like a whole that this is a wednesday. i was like the recommendation to me. let s wait to look take this place to do it. our pentagon correspondent, particle hand has more from washington d. c. they say now they re
a chinese surveillance balloon above us soil could says the balloon is a clear violation of its sovereignty. with the u. s. secretary of state postponing a planned visit to beijing. china says it s a civilian balloon and not being used for spying. a white house correspondent kimberley hall get reports. this thing is up in the sky. china s surveillance balloon is triggering a diplomatic rao that has prompted us secretary of state antelope blinkin to postpone his we can trip to beijing is an irresponsible act. and that the p r c. decision to take this action on these, my plan visit is detrimental to the suction of discussions that we were prepared to have. the u. s. is accusing china, a violating international law. the balloon is still hovering over the skies of the united states. it was 1st tracked over the aleutian islands near alaska and travelled through western canada and into the u. s. state of montana where it seemed so brazen and just so insane to me that any one would
montana. because of the risk of falling debris. officials said the balloon was flying over sensitive sites. all of this comes ahead of a visit by you or secretary of state entity blinking to china and next week, beijing is calling for com until the facts become clear. troubleshoot erin, good. yeah, china is a responsible country and we act in accordance with international law. we have no intention to violate other countries sovereignty and our aerospace we are gathering and verifying the facts we hope relevant parties would handle the matter in could had it way. katrina, you has more from beijing and how this might affect lincoln s trip next week. chinese foreign ministry spokesperson was asked repeatedly as to what impact this might have on the visit. and she simply said again and again, they have no information, but it does look like it s going to be a very rocky start. the whole point of this visit, the highest ranking official to visit china since the beginning of the pan