Beijing says US side should have \u2018properly handled the accident in a calm, professional manner\u2019
\n ISTANBUL
\nChina on Tuesday doubled down on its claim to downed balloon after Washington expressed \u201cno intention\u201d to return the alleged spy article.
\n\u201cThe balloon does not belong to the US, it belongs to China,\u201d Mao Ning, spokeswoman for China\u2019s Foreign Ministry, responded to a question that the US has no plans to return the debris from the Chinese balloon.
\n\u201cThe US side should have properly handled the accident in a calm, professional manner, but the US insisting on the use of force is obviously an overreaction,\u201d Mao said, according to the Chinese daily Global Times, insisting the balloon was for civilian use. She added Chinese government will \u201cfirmly safeguard its legitimate rights.\u201d Beijing\u2019s comments came after US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby had said there was \u201cno intention to send the pieces back.\u201d
\n\u201cI know of no such intention or plans to return it,\u201d he told reporters on Monday, adding Washington is recovering debris from the downed Chinese balloon in the Atlantic for analysis by intelligence experts.
\nThe US shot down the suspected Chinese \u201cspy\u201d balloon on Saturday which had been spotted above US airspace off the coast of the state of South Carolina.
\nChina has since accused Washington of \u201cdamaging\u201d progress made in bilateral relations by use of \u201cindiscriminate force\u201d to shoot down the alleged spy balloon.
\nChinese President Xi Jinping met with his US counterpart Joe Biden in Bali, Indonesia last November where the two sides had agreed to maintain high-level communication.
\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to travel to Beijing this weekend but postponed it due to the balloon incident. Beijing, however, has insisted that the \u201ccivilian\u201d airship made an unintended entry into the US airspace due to force majeure.
\nAfter the balloon was located by Washington, Beijing said it had conveyed to the US that it was a \u201ccivilian airship.\u201d
\nAn F-22 fighter of the US Air Force fired an AIM-9X air-to-air missile and shot down the balloon, the Pentagon said on Saturday, despite admitting that the balloon did not pose a military or physical threat.
\nDefense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the decision was made at the direction of US President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beijing says US side should have \u2018properly handled the accident in a calm, professional manner\u2019 ISTANBUL China on Tuesday doubled down on its claim to downed balloon after Washington expressed \u201cno intention\u201d to return the alleged spy article. \u201cThe balloon does not belong to the US, it belongs to China,\u201d Mao Ning, spokeswoman for China\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-312359","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n