US fighter jet shoots down 'Chinese spy balloon', China warns of repercussions | VIDEO

The balloon first entered US airspace in Alaska on January 28 before moving into Canadian airspace on Monday January 30. It then re-entered US airspace over northern Idaho on January 31, a US defense official said. Once it crossed over US land, it did not return to the open waters, making a shootdown difficult.

Warning of repercussions, China said US shooting down balloon is a "serious violation of international practice," threatens repercussions.

After the shootdown, China's foreign ministry statement released on Sunday said, "The US insisting on the use of force is an obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice. China will resolutely uphold the relevant company's legitimate rights and interests, at the same time, reserving the right to take further actions in response."

China's foreign ministry said on Saturday that the flight of the airship over the US was a force majeure accident. It even accused US politicians and media of taking advantage of the situation to discredit Beijing.

The US assessed that this balloon was part of a fleet of Chinese spy balloons. On Friday, it said another Chinese balloon was flying over Latin America.

Meanwhile, China argued that the balloon wasn't for spying and claimed that it was merely a weather research “airship” that had been blown off course. It earlier expressed regret that an "airship" used for civilian meteorological and other scientific purposes had strayed into US airspace.

"Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure," the spokesperson said in a statement posted on the Chinese foreign ministry's website.

US President Joe Biden said he had issued an order on Wednesday to take down the balloon. However, the Pentagon had recommended waiting until it could be done over open water to safeguard civilians from debris crashing to Earth from thousands of feet (meters) above commercial air traffic, Reuters reported. "They successfully took it down, and I want to compliment our aviators who did it," Biden was quoted as saying.

Multiple fighter and refueling aircraft were involved in the mission, but only one — an F-22 fighter jet from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia — took the shot at 2:39 p.m. (1939 GMT), using a single AIM-9X supersonic, heat-seeking, air-to-air missile, a senior US military official said.

The balloon was shot down about six nautical miles off the US coast, over relatively shallow water, potentially aiding efforts to recover elements of the Chinese surveillance equipment in the coming days, officials said.

The shootdown came shortly after the US government ordered a halt to flights in and out of three regional airports — Wilmington, Myrtle Beach and Charleston — due to what it said at the time was an undisclosed "national security effort." The flights resumed on Saturday afternoon.

While Saturday's shootdown concludes the military dimension to the spying saga,  Republican opponents in Congress continue to argue  that Biden failed to act quickly enough. Questions were also raised about how much information China may have gathered during the balloon's trek across the US.

US officials had not publicly disclosed the balloon's presence over the US until Thursday. Reacting to this, US Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican who leads the House Armed Services Committee, said, "It's clear the Biden administration had hoped to hide this national security failure from Congress and the American people."

Biden's emphasis on Saturday —  that days ago he had ordered the balloon shot down as soon as possible — could be an effort to respond to such critics.

Earlier this week, former President Donald Trump  called for the balloon to be shot down and sought to portray himself as stronger than Biden on China.

Trump  is Biden's potential rival in the 2024 election. The US relationship with China is likely to be a major theme of the 2024 presidential race.

The US had called the balloon's appearance a "clear violation" of US sovereignty and notified Beijing about the shootdown on Saturday, a US official said. On Saturday, officials appeared play down the balloon's impact on US national security, Reuters said.

"Our assessment —  and we're going to learn more as we pick up the debris —  was that it was not likely to provide significant additive value over and above other (Chinese) intel capability, such as satellites in low-Earth orbit," the senior US defense official said.

The suspected spy balloon prompted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a visit to China this week that had been expected to start on Friday.

The postponement of Blinken's trip, which had been agreed to in November by Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, was a blow to those who saw it as an overdue opportunity to stabilize an increasingly fractious relationship between the two countries.

China is keen for a stable US relationship so it can focus on its economy, battered by the now-abandoned zero-COVID policy and neglected by foreign investors alarmed by what they see as a return of state intervention in the market.