Sullivan, speaking at an event hosted by the U.S.
The military concluded 'we should not shoot it down over land, it was not a serious threat.”Ĭhina Accuses US of ‘Overreacting' When It Shot Down Balloon “Once it came over to the United States, from Canada, I told the Defense Department I wanted to shoot it down as soon as it was appropriate,” Biden said. Officials have said there was concern about damage to people on the ground, and Biden addressed the issue on Monday. “enhanced our surveillance of our territorial airspace, we enhanced our capacity to be able to detect things that the Trump administration was unable to detect.”īiden, in turn, has been faulted by some Republicans for not ordering the balloon shot down before it made its way across the U.S. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that after Biden took office, the U.S. officials said Monday that improvements ordered by President Joe Biden to strengthen defenses against Chinese espionage helped to identify last week’s spy balloon - and to determine that similar flights were conducted at multiple points during the Trump administration.
