On Saturday, the U.S. Military shot down the Chinese balloon, which many in the government believed to be on an intelligence gathering mission. Congressman Mike Rogers, the Chairman of the powerful House Armed Services Committee, released a statement supportive of the successful mission by the United States military to take down the Chinese balloon.
“I applaud our servicemembers for completing a successful mission to neutralize a spy balloon sent by the Chinese Communist Party,” Rogers said. “I remain deeply concerned by the Biden administration’s decision to allow the spy balloon to traverse the United States. The Biden administration reportedly learned of the CCP spy balloon on January 28th – nearly a week before residents in Montana spotted the balloon loitering over their state. It’s clear the Biden administration had hoped to hide this national security failure from Congress and the American people. Now, the White House must provide answers about why they decided to allow a CCP spy balloon to cross the United States and what damage to our national security occurred from this decision. The United States must project strength to deter China – this failure is another example of weakness by the Biden administration.”
A U.S. Air Force F-22 shot down the balloon with a single missile on Saturday off of the South Carolina Coast. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had paused flights out of three South Carolina and North Carolina airports to make sure that no civilians were inadvertently put in harm by the mission. The military had considered shooting down the balloon over Montana earlier in the week but elected not to for fear that wreckage could have potentially harmed Americans on the ground.
President Joe Biden told reporters, “On Wednesday, when I was briefed on the balloon, I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down, on Wednesday, as soon as possible. They decided — without doing damage to anyone on — on the ground. They decided that the best time to do that was as it got over water, outside — within our — within the 12-mile limit. They successfully took it down. And I want to compliment our aviators who did it. And we’ll have more to report on this a little later.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a scheduled trip to China to protest the intrusion of the balloon over American air space. Blinken’s visit would have been the highest-ranking visit to China by an American official in six years.
The Chinese government acknowledged that it was their balloon but claimed it was not an intelligence balloon. They, instead, claim it was a weather balloon that had gone astray and was not on an intelligence-gathering mission. The U.S. Coast Guard is attempting to retrieve as much of the wreckage of the balloon as possible. Of particular interest was a basket of equipment on the underside of the balloon. A second Chinese balloon was confirmed traveling over South America on Friday.
Mike Rogers is in his eleventh term representing Alabama’s Third Congressional District.
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