China admits that the balloon that flies over the US belongs to it but that it is used for meteorological purposes

China has admitted this Friday that the hot air balloon that flew over the United States It belongs to him at a great height, after previously asking not to “speculate” after the accusations launched from the Pentagon.

“The airship is from China. It is a civilian airship used for research purposes, mainly meteorological“, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Asian giant clarified in an evening statement.

The Pentagon reported in a statement that the spy balloon was flying at high altitude, “well above commercial air traffic” and the authorities are following it “closely”. However, the Defense Department specified that it does not pose a threat to civil aviation. In addition, he pointed out that it’s not the first time that a balloon of this type flies over US territory, although on this occasion its presence has been longer.

“Once the balloon was detected, the US Government immediately acted to protect itself against the collection of sensitive information,” says the note, which notes that the US has contacted “urgently” with the Chinese authorities to address this incident and convey to them the “seriousness” with which they take what happened. “We have made it clear that we will do whatever is necessary to protect our people and our nation,” the note said, citing a senior defense official.

The American President, Joe Biden, was informed about it and asked about the possible “options” to the military officials, while the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, met on Wednesday with the leadership of the Pentagon, despite being on a trip to the Philippines. Washington’s position, however, is to allow the balloon to float over its territory instead of trying to shoot it down, because of the risk that shooting it down would pose to the civilian population.

In this sense, Defense has explained that the device is “big enough” enough to deal damage if knocked down.