Republican senators are pushing for President Biden to explain why a Chinese spy balloon was allowed to float across the U.S. earlier this year before being shot down.
In a letter spearheaded by Sens. Marco Rubio and Roger Wicker, the lawmakers expressed frustration with the lack of transparency about the incident.
“While four months have passed since a Chinese surveillance balloon was allowed to fly across the United States, your administration has yet to provide the American people a full accounting of how this spy platform was allowed to traverse across sovereign U.S. territory, what the balloon carried, and what it collected during its mission,” the senators wrote.
The letter came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken departs for an official visit to China. Mr. Blinken was scheduled to visit the communist power in February but that trip was scrapped because of the balloon incursion.
At the time of the postponement, there was speculation that Beijing had canceled the trip because of concerns the U.S. would make public the findings of the FBI’s investigation into the balloon.
The senators said the U.S. should address the rumors by making public assessments of the spy balloon.
“Beijing continues to test U.S. resolve and tarnish U.S. credibility — we must respond with strength, or risk further aggression from America’s adversaries,” they wrote.
Earlier this year, a spy balloon was observed flying over Canada and Montana. The flight path of the object was near U.S. military installations. The balloon was allowed to travel across much of the continental U.S. before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
Administration officials said that allowing the object to remain in flight was the only way to ensure it could be shot down in an area where retrieval would be possible.
NBC News reported Mr. Biden had sought to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping after the U.S. military shot down the balloon, but was begged off by advisers.
Administration officials reportedly believed that a phone call between the two leaders would do little to put the U.S.-China “relationship back on track.”
