The Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee will hold a hearing to get answers surrounding the suspected Chinese spy balloon that floated for days over U.S. airspace.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), the subcommittee’s chairman, said on Feb. 3 that Biden administration officials will have to answer questions about the balloon, which was first acknowledged while in the sky over the Democrat’s home state of Montana.
“Montanans value their freedom and privacy and I'll always fight to defend both,” Tester said in a statement. “China’s actions are a clear threat to those values and to America’s national security, and I’m demanding answers from the Biden Administration.
“I will be pulling people before my committee to get real answers on how this happened, and how we can prevent it from ever happening again.”
Republican Response
Montana’s other U.S. senator, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), has voiced strong disapproval against the Biden administration’s handling of the Chinese balloon, calling it a show of “weakness and indecision” that has “empowered and emboldened our enemies.”“I believe that Montana truly got a firsthand look at the Biden administration’s weakness on foreign policy this week,” Daines said during a Feb. 3 press conference. “It is a tremendous embarrassment for the United States of America. Montanans and all the American people deserve answers from the Pentagon and from this administration on what happened and what is being done to ensure this never happens again.”
The aircraft, flying at about 60,000 feet, was described to be the size of three buses with the ability to maneuver. According to Pentagon, it flew from China, then over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, and through northwest Canada before being seen in the area of Billings, Montana.
Defense Secretary Confirms Destruction
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed on Feb. 4 that the balloon was destroyed, telling reporters that President Joe Biden gave his authorization on Feb. 1 to shoot it down “as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path.”The balloon was being used by Beijing “in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States,” he noted.
After “careful analysis,” Austin said, military commanders decided to not shoot down the balloon over land “due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload,” which would pose an “undue risk to people across a wide area.” Instead, they waited to carry out the attack until the balloon was safely over the Atlantic.
The balloon incident is expected to further strain the already tense relationship between Washington and Beijing. Just hours before Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to embark on his visit to China, he said he would have to indefinitely postpone the high-stakes trip.
“In light of China’s unacceptable action, I am postponing my planned travel this weekend in China,” Blinken said on Feb. 3, noting that his department decided that “conditions were not conducive for a constructive visit at this time” after discussing the matter with other Biden administration officials and with members of Congress.
