China urges calm over 'spy' balloon in US airspace

China has urged "cool-headed" handling of a quality implicit a elephantine Chinese balloon heading for the eastbound US.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier called disconnected a sojourn to Beijing, saying the "surveillance" balloon's beingness was "an irresponsible act".

Later the US reported a 2nd Chinese balloon floating implicit Latin America.

China expressed regret implicit the balloon implicit the US, saying it was a upwind airship that had been blown astray. It was past spotted implicit Missouri.

It is expected to scope America's eastbound seashore adjacent the Carolinas this weekend.

The US has decided not to sprout down the high-altitude airship owed to the information of falling debris,

The incidental comes amid fraying tensions betwixt the US and China.

In a connection connected Saturday, the Chinese overseas ministry said Beijing "never violated the territory and airspace of immoderate sovereign country".

It said it had discussed the incidental with Mr Blinken, stressing that maintaining connection channels astatine each levels was important, "especially successful dealing with immoderate unexpected situations successful a calm and reliable manner".

And it added that "some politicians and media successful the United States utilized the incidental arsenic a pretext to onslaught and smear China."

According to US officials, the airship floated implicit Alaska and Canada earlier appearing implicit the US authorities of Montana, which is location to a fig of delicate atomic rocket sites.

The incidental angered apical US officials, with Mr Blinken saying it was "a usurpation of our sovereignty".

"This is an unacceptable arsenic good arsenic an irresponsible action," helium said. "It's adjacent much irresponsible coming connected the eve of a long-planned visit."

America's apical diplomat had been acceptable to sojourn Beijing from 5 to 6 February to clasp talks connected a wide scope of issues, including security, Taiwan and Covid-19. It would person been the archetypal high-level US-China gathering determination successful years.

But connected Thursday, US defence officials announced they were tracking a elephantine surveillance balloon implicit the US.

While the balloon was, the Pentagon said, "travelling astatine an altitude good supra commercialized aerial traffic" and did "not contiguous a subject oregon carnal menace to radical connected the ground", its beingness sparked outrage.

On Friday, China yet acknowledged the balloon was its property, saying that it was a civilian airship utilized for meteorological research, which deviated from its way due to the fact that of atrocious weather.

And precocious connected Friday, the Pentagon said a 2nd Chinese spy balloon had been spotted - this clip implicit Latin America.

"We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We present measure it is different Chinese surveillance balloon," said Pentagon property caput Brig Gen Patrick Ryder. He provided nary further details astir its location.

China has truthful acold made nary nationalist comments connected the reported 2nd balloon.