WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives will officially censure China for deploying a surveillance balloon over the United States that was shot down by the military off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday .
Resolution carried by Republican representative. Texas-based Mike McCall, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, slammed China for "blatant violations of the sovereignty of the United States" and condemned the "Chinese Communist Party's efforts to mislead the international community with false claims about intelligence gathering." respectively". violation of the sovereignty of the United States."
The measure, which is likely to garner bipartisan support, would require the Biden administration to continue providing information to Congress through a "comprehensive" situation report, including a full account of all "known incursions" into China's national airspace in recent years.
Members of the House of Representatives received a briefing from the Biden administration on the balloon incursion, which the Pentagon said Wednesday is part of a "larger Chinese balloon surveillance program" that has been running on five continents for several years.
The latest Chinese spy balloon made its debut in US skies on Jan. 28, flying over or near four military installations in Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska and Missouri, authorities said. China insists the plane was a meteor balloon which must have crashed, a claim the US denies. The House of Representatives resolution accused Beijing of trying to spread "false statements about the nature and purpose" of the balloon.
Senior government officials confirmed that previous balloons had also flown over parts of Hawaii, Texas and Florida, and that they had flown over the United States at least three times during the Trump administration.
Republicans have criticized the Biden administration's response to the balloon attack, wondering why it waited days to shoot it down and have the balloon ferry across to the United States.
McCall said last week that the balloon "should not enter US airspace" because it poses a threat to national security.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Saturday that President Biden ordered the balloon launched last Wednesday. But the president was told it would be risky to get the balloon on the ground, where debris could pose a threat to people on the ground, according to US officials.
The Pentagon said Monday the balloon would rise to 200 feet , taller than the Statue of Liberty. It carries an airplane-sized payload, Air Force Gen. Glenn VanHark, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said Monday that the debris field was "more than 15 out of 15 football fields."
In an interview with CBS News on Monday, Austin said the Navy had recovered most of the balloon and that the military would make "extensive efforts" to collect the debris from the seabed.
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