CNN's Ivan
Watson is
standing by in Hong Kong
with the latest from there Ivan.
China doubling down, issuing
some strong words after the U.S.
down the balloon.
That's right.
Beijing is now saying that if the U.S.
essentially if the U.S.
flies a balloon over China,
it'll probably shoot it down.
Look at this statement
coming from the Chinese defense ministry.
Quote, The U.S.
used force to attack
our civilian unmanned airship,
which is an obvious overreaction.
We expressed solemn protest
against this move by the U.S.
side and reserve the right to use
necessary means
to deal with similar situations.
There has been a shift in the tone
from Beijing.
On Friday
evening, the Chinese foreign ministry
expressed regret, saying that it's
an air ship,
as it described it,
which was used primarily for research
purposes,
had blown off course over the U.S.
And now the Chinese government,
different ministries
are protesting the fact that that
this U.S.
fighter jet shot the balloon down.
The damage
on the
diplomatic front has already been visible
with the U.S.
Secretary of State, Antony Blinken,
postponing a trip
that he was supposed
to make this weekend
to Beijing over this balloon scandal.
And calling the existence of this balloon
over U.S.
airspace a violation of U.S.
sovereignty and of international law.
The Chinese response has been,
hey, this is a weather.
This is due to weather.
It's out of our control.
They have been communicating
with their U.S.
counterparts but this has clearly done
some damage to
what was
an effort
that began in November
between President Biden
and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping,
when they met face to face
at the G-20 summit in Bali
to try to basically
put a stop
to the downward
spiral in relations
between the world's
two largest economies.
We'll just have to see
whether there can be any efforts to try
to revive diplomacy
in the wake of of this.
I would argue a growing crisis.
How was this incident seen in the region?
Well, look,
it is creating a repercussion elsewhere.
The Canadian government
came out over the weekend
saying that this balloon
had been seen in Canadian airspace.
It summoned China's ambassador
to Ottawa then.
And now we're getting reports
of a second object
flying over Central and Latin America
that looks
remarkably similar to the balloon
that was just shot down over the U.S.
It was seen over
Costa Rica,
according to Costa Rican officials,
on Thursday.
And then on Friday,
the Colombian Air Force
put out this statement
saying that this object
was seen
at an altitude of above 55,000 feet,
which is roughly
the same altitude as the balloon
that was seen over
the U.S.,
that it was monitored
and it was moving at a speed of 25 knots,
and that
the Colombians followed it until it left
Colombian airspace.
A U.S.
official telling CNN
they believe that
this also is,
as they put it, a Chinese
surveil launch balloon.
We have put a question
in to the Chinese government
asking whether or not this is in fact
a Chinese airship
as they've put it about, about the
the previous balloon
that was seen over U.S.
airspace. And also, U.S.
officials have said
that they have also seen similar Chinese,
as they put it, surveillance balloons
three times over U.S.
airspace during the Trump administration
and at least once over the U.S.
earlier during the Biden administration.
Why has this story to do this?
Why is this blown up this time?
Well, U.S.
officials say they haven't seen it
loitering over U.S.
airspace
for such a duration of time in the past.
And we don't know that ordinary citizens
have been able
to see this kind of balloon
with their own eyes, with the naked eye
and take pictures of it before.
And that's part of what's
adding to the alarm here.
Ivan Watson reporting from Hong Kong,
thanks so much. Ivan.
Mary Schiavo is a CNN
transportation analyst.
She joins us now from Anchorage, Alaska.
So good to see you.
Mary, incidentally, the balloon
we understand, was first detected
last Saturday over Alaska.
It's now in the Atlantic Ocean
somewhere after quite a journey.
How long do
we expect to salvage operation to take
Well, actually, the United States
and several other countries
are very experienced
in these underwater salvage operations
because of downed aircraft over the past
and for many years.
And other underwater operations.
So it's really going to depend upon
how lucky they are at finding the
the payload package, the debris.
If you will, there
the equipment or whatever
fell from the balloon
and without what they call a pinger
many times or devices
that help you locate, for
example, black, black
boxes on down planes.
But here, they don't expect to find that.
So they will just have
to literally scour the ocean floor.
But many of the world's nations are quite
experienced in underwater
recovery operations.
And, Mary, once
the parts are salvaged,
will it be obvious whether investigators
are dealing with a spy and contraption
or whether tracker?
Will that be obvious right away?
And what will they hope to learn
by studying the balloon?
Well,
it should be obvious,
but then there's a big ifs here
that depends upon
how well the equipment survived the fall
and how people think that water breaks
or fall.
But literally from falling
from that height, it's
it's like hitting concrete.
It's a very hard fall.
So they will have to see what is left
and what's there to determine,
which could, of course, be possible.
They will have the equipment,
but they can't recover from it
because of exposure to saltwater
or because of the impact.
But, yeah, the
you know, the United States
and other countries
that have experienced
an underwater recovery
of aircraft parts and black boxes
and equipment
are pretty good
at downloading information
and putting it back together
because of investigators from prior
aviation accidents.
This isn't the first time
something like this has happened.
I understand that other suspected
spy balloons have transited
across the continental U.S..
That's right.
They're reporting now.
And and,
you know,
I think that the public sightings
may play a big role in this.
And what's happened this time?
Because now
the government is saying
that this has been happening for
for as long as five or more years.
There was one cited over
Hawaii and Fabio sorry, of 20, 22
just a year ago now.
The Costa Rica sighting.
The Columbia sighting.
So it's very difficult to
find that with the
the story that it was just one
balloon that escaped from China.
So I think that's part of
the problem here
is too many to believe the explanation,
if it turns out to be a spying balloon,
this still needs to be determined.
Why use a brain for spying
when you can use satellites?
I mean, are they more effective?
Because they're certainly not subtle
Well, and
the speculation and in the U.S.
and other circles
and other places is, of course,
they're searching for something.
Satellites can't pick up
other kinds of detection, communications
signals, radiation signatures,
other kinds of things that the satellites
can't possibly pick up.
So this would be a different
kind of sensing equipment, most likely,
because if you're looking
for a visual sighting,
obviously satellite
technology is so great that you can get,
you know, pictures down to,
you know, a few feet or in some cases
a few inches.
So that the technology on the satellites,
if it's some kind of a visual
sensing, is amazingly good.
So the fact that some people speculate
they were looking to locate US
missile silos. Yeah, probably not.
I'm sure they already know that.
So this would be other
kind of sensing equipment.
And the speculation is most likely
some kind of communications sensing
radiation, microwave waves
or other things
that you could not readily sense
from a satellite.
And a final thought from you.
Could Beijing
ask to have the wreckage returned?
I mean, what's the protocol
in these situations?
If there is a protocol?
Well, you
know, that kind of thing is
that's very interesting question.
And that has happened in the past.
And the U.S.
has been in similar situations
where they have had
heavy equipment, ships, planes, you name
it, returned many, many years ago.
Before, for many
probably listening, were even born in
the U.S., had a spy plane
that was shot down. And, of course, U.S.
to ask to have it returned,
they could ask to have it returned
but when she was on the other foot
and other
countries, China, etc.,
that equipment from the United States,
you know,
they didn't return
and they certainly didn't return it
until they saw what was on it.
And because it did traverse the U.S.
airspace, now they say, well, you know,
you shot down a civilian aircraft,
not exactly.
When you traverse
the airspace of other countries,
there are treaties in place
that govern
that you have to give advice
and permission, etc.
And we don't have those same treaties
in place with China, by the way.
They're not the same
for all countries of the world.
So it did invade the airspace
without permission.
And of course, the advisory
that came too little too late
doesn't explain that.
So I think that the U.S.
will keep it.
Mary Schiavo, I thank you so much.
Greatly appreciate you. Thank you.