A US fighter jet on Saturday shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina, the Pentagon said, over what it called Beijing’s “unacceptable violation” of US sovereignty.
President Joe Biden congratulated fighter pilots for taking down the balloon in US airspace and above US territorial waters, after it spent days flying over the country.
“They successfully took it down. And I want to compliment our aviators who did it,” Biden told reporters in Maryland.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called the operation a “deliberate and lawful action” that came in response to “the PRC’s unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” he said referring to China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China
