‘Now blow up TikTok’: US reacts to shooting down of spy balloon
US politicians have blasted Joe Biden’s handling of a suspected Chinese spy balloon hours after the US military shot the object down.
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A Republican politician has demanded US President Joe Biden take action to shut down TikTok, an app critics allege gives the Chinese government private access to tens of millions of Americans.
Hours after Mr Biden ordered the United States Air Force to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon, controversial Republican Matt Gaetz took to Twitter with a simple instruction: “Now blow up TikTok.”
It comes as high-ranking Republican senator Marco Rubio said that China intentionally flew a spy balloon over the US to send the message that America is in “decline”, reports the New York Post.
Now blow up TikTok
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) February 5, 2023
“They did this on purpose. They understood that it was going to be spotted, they knew the US government would have to reveal it, that people were going to see it over the sky. And the message they were trying to send is what they believe internally, and that is that the United States is a once-great superpower that’s hollowed out, it’s in decline,” Mr Rubio said on US TV on Sunday local time.
Mr Rubio rejected China’s excuse that the balloon was a “civilian aircraft” which had flown off course, adding that the Biden administration’s decision to initially keep quiet about the object after it entered US airspace and not shoot it down until it was off the East Coast played right into China’s intentions.
“The message [China] is trying to send the world is, ‘Look, these guys can’t even do anything about a balloon flying over US airspace,’” Mr Rubio said.
“How can you possibly count on [the Democratic White House] if something were to happen in the Indo-Pacific region? How can you count on them if they’re not going to do anything about a balloon over US airspace? How are they going to come to the aid of Taiwan or stand with the Philippines or Japan or India when the Chinese move on their territory?’” he asked.
Mr Biden’s decision to shoot down the balloon came a week after it was first detected over Alaska on January 25 and days after it was later reported over Montana, Missouri, and the Carolinas.
‘DISSATISFACTION AND OPPOSITION’
It comes as China expressed its “strong dissatisfaction and opposition ” after the spy balloon was shot down by US fighter jets.
The US military took down the surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean after Mr Biden vowed to “take care of it”.
Fox News video showed the deflated white balloon dropping down into the Atlantic Ocean, shortly after the craft cleared the South Carolina coast near Myrtle Beach.
China responded that it reserved the right to “take further actions” and criticised the US for “an obvious over-reaction and a serious violation of international practice.”
In its statement on Sunday, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “China will resolutely uphold the relevant company’s legitimate rights and interests, and at the same time reserving the right to take further actions in response.”
US President Joe Biden earlier confirmed the mission to shoot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon was successful.
“On Wednesday when I was briefed on the balloon, I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down — on Wednesday — as soon as possible,” the US President told reporters in Hagerstown, Maryland.
“They decided, without doing damage to anyone on the ground, they decided that the best time to do that was as it got over water … within a 12-mile limit. They successfully took it down and I want to compliment our aviators who did it,” he said.
Mr Biden said: “I told them to shoot it down. They said to me, ‘Let’s wait for the safest place to do it.’”
Earlier, flights were suspended at several airports in the Carolinas as the US prepared to shoot down the balloon.
The affected airports were in Wilmington, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, CNN reported.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop for the three airports in the Carolinas as the suspected Chinese spy balloon drifted through the area, a spokesman confirmed in a statement.
The administration also restricted airspace near Myrtle Beach for “national defence airspace.”
The balloon was first sighted over the US last week by civilians in Billings, Montana.
It comes after Donald Trump called for a major escalation against China after its spy balloon breached US airspace, with Beijing apologising for the errant orb in a rare display of regret.
While the Biden administration cancelled a diplomatic visit to China in response, the former US president called on the Pentagon to fire upon the surveillance satellite as it continued floating across sensitive areas of the United States.
“Shoot down the balloon,” Mr Trump said in a post to Truth Social.
In a move showing the severity of the security breach, China made a rare attempt to ease tensions by expressing its “regret” that bad weather blew the “self-steering” airship “far from its planned course”, 10,000 kilometres away from China over the US state of Montana.
“The airship is from China,” Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said in a rare admission, while claiming it did not have a military use. “It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes.”
“The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure.”
China claimed the balloon was a civilian airship used for meteorological research, but the US military said the intent of the balloon was “clearly surveillance”.
The northwestern United States is home to sensitive air bases and nuclear weapons in underground silos.
Pentagon spokesman US Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder disputed China’s claim that weather research was the purpose of the balloon, which he said was at about 60,000 and had “changed course” since it was first spotted.
“While we won’t get into specifics in regard to the exact location, I can tell you that the balloon continues to move eastward and is currently over the centre of the continental United States,” he said.
“We do know that the balloon has violated airspace and international law, which is unacceptable. We’ve conveyed this directly to the PRC at multiple levels.”
He added that there was a “large payload”, the surveillance component, underneath the actual balloon which could cause a large debris field and damage on the ground if shot down.
Similar balloons had previously entered US airspace, he said., but the details were classified.
The balloon was monitored passing over the Aleutian Islands and through Canada before entering US airspace, where it was tracked and followed by fighter jets, including F-22s.
Canada said on Friday it was monitoring a “potential second incident” that was being actively tracked, but China did not confirm a presence over the US’s northern neighbour, or whether it was the same balloon that was earlier over Montana.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a diplomatic trip this weekend ahead of meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gag, and potentially CCP Chairman Xi Jinping, on Monday.
“After consultations with our interagency partners, as well as with Congress, we have concluded that the conditions are not right at this moment for Secretary Blinken to travel to China,” a senior State Department official told reporters, according to CNBC.
“We have noted the PRC statement of regret, but the presence of this balloon in our airspace is a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law and is unacceptable that this has occurred,” the official said.
They added the row over the balloon “would have significantly narrowed the agenda” for Blinken’s visit, which would have been the first by a top US diplomat since October 2018.
The response was decried by Republican politicians as weak, and “coddling” to appease the Chinese Communist Party.
“Bring the balloon down now and exploit its tech package, which could be an intelligence bonanza,” tweeted Senator Tom Cotton, a prominent hardliner who had urged Blinken to call off his trip.
With AFP
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