by President Joe Biden says the US will “take care of” a suspected Chinese spy balloon that has been flying over the US in recent days.
Mr. Biden, who did not provide further details, is facing intense nationwide pressure to take down the object.
Officials advised against such a move due to the danger of falling debris.
Later on Saturday, the US Federal Aviation Administration said it had disrupted traffic at three airports “in support of a national security effort”.
One of the affected airports is Myrtle Beach International in South Carolina, the state the balloon was said to be heading to.
The FAA also closed the airspace off the coast of South Carolina. Tracking website Flightradar24 showed US Air Force and Coast Guard planes operating in the skies between Wilmington, North Carolina and Myrtle Beach.
The balloon’s arrival over the United States comes amid fraying tensions between Washington and Beijing, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceling a trip to Beijing over the matter.
Blinken said the presence of the “surveillance” balloon was “an irresponsible act”. However, China – which claims it is a weather ship gone astray – has urged a “cold” handling of the dispute.
The giant white balloon was last spotted over Missouri and is expected to reach the US east coast near the Carolinas over the weekend.
In another development, the United States reported a second Chinese balloon flying over Latin America on Friday.
China, which has expressed regret over the incident, said on Saturday it had “never violated the territory and airspace of any sovereign country”.
In a statement, his foreign ministry downplayed the cancellation of Blinken’s visit and said neither side had formally announced such a plan.
He added that Beijing “would not accept any unfounded conjecture or hype” and accused “certain politicians and the media in the United States” of using the incident “as a pretext to attack and defame China”.
According to US officials, the balloon flew over Alaska and Canada before appearing over the US state of Montana, which is home to a number of sensitive nuclear missile sites.
The incident angered senior US officials, with Blinken saying he told Beijing that the balloon’s presence was “a clear violation of US sovereignty and international law” and “an irresponsible act” on the eve of his visit to China.
The top US diplomat was expected to visit Beijing Feb. 5-6 to hold talks on a wide range of issues, including security, Taiwan and Covid-19. It would have been the first high-level US-China meeting there in years.
But plans faltered after US defense officials announced on Thursday that they were tracking a giant surveillance balloon over the United States.
While the Pentagon said the balloon “was traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic” and “posed no military or physical threat to people on the ground,” its presence sparked outrage.
China finally acknowledged on Friday that the balloon was its property, saying it was a civilian airship used for meteorological research, which had deviated from its course due to bad weather.
And late Friday evening, the Pentagon said it had sighted a second Chinese spy balloon, this time over Latin America with sightings reported over Costa Rica and Venezuela.
China has so far made no public comments on the second reported balloon.
