Biden: The US will "take care" of the Chinese balloon

President Joe Biden said Saturday that the United States is "going to take care" of a Chinese hot air balloon that flew over the United States on an alleged spying mission.

As Reuters reports, on the way to New York, Biden answered a journalist's question about whether there are plans to shoot down a balloon flying over the continental United States.

"We'll take care of it," the US president said.

A surveillance ball that flew at a high altitude over US territory, which Washington considers a "clear violation" of US sovereignty.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Friday that he had postponed his visit to China, which was due to start this weekend, because of the incident.

In a telephone conversation with former Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who was recently promoted to the position of senior foreign affairs official in the Chinese Communist Party, Anthony Blinken called the balloon situation "an irresponsible act and a clear violation of US sovereignty and international law that undermined the purpose of the trip ".

According to the US State Department, during the conversation, the Secretary of State explained that "given this problem, it would be inappropriate to visit Beijing at this time."

According to ABC News, citing China's Xinhua News Agency, Wang Yi said that China is a responsible country and always strictly adheres to international law, and both sides should communicate and avoid misjudgment.

On Friday, China acknowledged that the balloon was Chinese. A statement from China's Foreign Ministry said it was a civilian airship used for meteorological research that deviated from its route due to bad weather.

China also stressed in its statement that they "did not intend to violate and have never violated the territory or airspace of any sovereign country" and expressed regret over the incident. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China assured that they would cooperate with the United States to solve the problem.

At the same time, in a statement, Beijing accused "some politicians in the United States" of "taking advantage" of this problem to discredit China.

A State Department official said the US stands by its belief that the bullet was used for surveillance.

According to Reuters, the incident is a blow to those who believed that Secretary of State Blinken's visit, which was agreed by Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in November, could be "a belated opportunity to stabilize an increasingly volatile relationship." The last visit of the US Secretary of State to China took place in 2017.