Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told State Newswire the Biden administration needs to stand up to China and address the national security threat posed by the Chinese balloon that flew over the U.S. before it was shot down Feb. 4.
The U.S. Department of Defense announced Feb. 2 it was tracking an intelligence-gathering balloon. Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the balloon was not the first of its kind to be spotted over the U.S., according to a news release.
“The Chinese Communist Party clearly doesn’t fear or respect us. There’s no excuse for allowing unapproved Chinese aircraft into U.S. airspace, especially ones with intelligence-collecting capabilities. We need to demonstrate to the CCP and all our foreign adversaries that these incidents don’t happen without consequence,” Burchett said in his statement.
Another senior official said the department was not taking action to shoot the balloon down, but instead allowed it to continue to float over Montana, the news release reported. Its size factored into the initial decision not to shoot it down.
“We did assess that it was large enough to cause damage from the debris field if we downed it over an area," the official said, according to the release. “I can’t really go into the dimension — but there have been reports of pilots seeing this thing, even though it's pretty high up in the sky."
Secretary of State Antony Blinken delayed his trip to China because of the balloon, the National Review reported. The balloon flew over Alaska and Canada before arriving in Montana, where a senior defense official told NBC it seemed to be monitoring Malmstrom Air Force Base, one of three U.S. bases where intercontinental ballistic missile sites are located according to the Malmstrom website.
Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, said that area was not densely populated, so it could have easily been shot down without civilian casualties, according to the National Review.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed the balloon was from China, but denied that the balloon’s purpose is to gather intelligence.
“It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes. Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course,” the spokesperson said, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. “The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into U.S. airspace due to force majeure. The Chinese side will continue communicating with the US side and properly handle this unexpected situation caused by force majeure.”
At a Feb. 3 briefing, Ryder said the North American Aerospace Defense Command continued to monitor the balloon, according to Twitter. It did not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground, he said.
The U.S. military shot the balloon down off the coast of South Carolina Feb. 4, NPR reported Feb. 5. Defense officials said they were working with the FBI and counterintelligence agencies to recover debris from the balloon, including “any material of intelligence value.”
Burchett served as mayor of Knox County and was a member of the state legislature before his election to represent Tennessee’s Second Congressional District, according to his website.
