<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>The US has shot down a giant Chinese balloon that it says has been spying on key military sites across America.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Department of Defense confirmed its fighter jets brought down the balloon over US territorial waters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">China's foreign ministry later expressed "strong dissatisfaction and protest against the US's use of force to attack civilian unmanned aircraft".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Footage on US TV networks showed the balloon falling to the sea after a small explosion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An F-22 jet fighter engaged the high-altitude balloon with one missile - an AIM-9X Sidewinder - and it went down about six nautical miles off the US coast at 14:39 EST (19:39 GMT), a defence official told reporters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defence officials told US media the debris landed in 47ft (14m) of water - shallower than they had expected - near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The military is now trying to recover debris which is spread over seven miles (11km). Two naval ships, including one with a heavy crane for recovery, are in the area.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">US President Joe Biden had been under pressure to shoot the balloon down since defence officials first announced they were tracking it on Thursday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After the balloon was shot down, Mr Biden said: "They successfully took it down, and I want to compliment our aviators who did it."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a statement a few hours later, the Chinese foreign ministry said: "The Chinese side has repeatedly informed the US side after verification that the airship is for civilian use and entered the US due to force majeure - it was completely an accident."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The discovery of the balloon set off a diplomatic crisis, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken immediately calling off this weekend's trip to China over the "irresponsible act".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Chinese authorities have denied it is a spying aircraft, and instead said it was a weather ship blown astray.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Reacting to the incident, Taiwan's foreign ministry said in a statement: "The Chinese Communist Party government's actions that violate international law and violate the airspace and sovereignty of other countries should not be tolerated in a civilised international community."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">China considers self-ruled Taiwan a breakaway province that will eventually be under Beijing's control. President Xi Jinping has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve this.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Taiwan sees itself as independent, with its own constitution and democratically-elected leaders.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">President Biden first approved the plan to down the balloon on Wednesday, but the Pentagon said it had decided to wait until the object was over water so as not to put people on the ground at undue risk.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Groundwork for the operation was laid when the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly paused all civilian flights at three airports around the South Carolina coast on Saturday afternoon because of a "national security effort".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The coast guard also advised mariners to leave the area due to military operations "that present a significant hazard".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An eyewitness on the coast, Hayley Walsh, told BBC News she saw three fighter jets circling before the missile was fired, then "we heard a huge boom, the house shook".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One senior military official told CNN the recovery of debris should be "fairly easy" and could take "relatively short time". The official added that "capable Navy divers" could be deployed to assist in the operation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defence officials also revealed on Saturday the balloon had first entered US airspace on 28 January, before moving to Canadian airspace three days later, and re-entering the US on 31 January. The object was spotted in the US state of Montana, which is home to a number of sensitive nuclear missile sites.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Relations between China and the US have been exacerbated by the incident, with the Pentagon calling it an "unacceptable violation" of US sovereignty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Blinken - America's top diplomat - told Beijing it was "an irresponsible act" ahead of his now-cancelled trip on 5-6 February - it would have been the first such high level US-China meeting there in years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But China sought to play down the cancellation of his visit, saying in a statement on Saturday that neither side had formally announced a plan for a trip.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">China's foreign ministry said Beijing "would not accept any groundless conjecture or hype" and accused "some politicians and media in the United States" of using the incident "as a pretext to attack and smear China."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Friday, the Pentagon said a second Chinese spy balloon had been spotted - this time over Latin America with reported sightings over Costa Rica and Venezuela.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">China has so far made no public comments on the reported second balloon. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>