President Joe Biden said the Chinese spy baloon that US officials shot out of the sky last week was “not a major breach” of security. He spoke about the amount of intelligence gathering that countries do, seeming to suggest the recent incident was an ordinary occurance.
Biden, 80, told an interviewer while speaking with Telemundo that the amount of intelligence gathering by countries is “overwhelming”.
“It’s not a major breach,” he said.
The president added: “Look, the total amount of intelligence gathering that’s going on by every country around the world is overwhelming.”
The Chinese aircraft, which was capable of gathering intelligence using antennas and other materials, was shot down by a US fighter jet on Saturday after it had hovered over the country for a number of days.
Biden didn’t immediately shoot down the aircraft as he wanted to avoid any potential civillian casualties.
When asked if he regretted not shooting down the balloon straight away, he said: “No.”
He added: “I said I wanted it shot down as soon as possible and [the intelligence community and Defence Department] were worried about the damage that can be done even in a big state like Montana.
“This thing was gigantic. What happened if it came down and hit a school in a rural area? So, I told them as soon as they can shoot it down, shoot it down. They made a wise decision.”
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Biden said it was “totally a violation of international law” and once it is in US airspace, officials can do what they want with it.
The White House passed a decision on Thursday condemning the “brazen violation of United States sovereignty” for its spy aircraft, calling on the House to “continue to keep Congress apprised by providing comprehensive briefing on this incident.”
The House also called on the president to provide an “assessment of what surveillance data [China] was potentially able to collect or transmit” from the spy balloon, and how officials can stop China collecting intelligence.
The Pentagon has been criticised by members of the Senate for giving little information about the balloon.
On Thursday, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said: “I know we’re going to have an opportunity for more information in the classified brief.
“I think that the American public deserve more than they have seen in terms of transparency about why this spy balloon was allowed to spend two days over our waters and over the state of Alaska.”
A survey conducted in 2021 by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) compiled a list of 160 incidents of China’s espionage attempts towards the US since 2000.
The investigation found that nefarious activity by Beijing has been on the rise since 2010.
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