The United States has completed the task of recovering the wreckage of a Chinese balloon with alleged surveillance purposes that was shot down earlier this month, the Army’s Northern Command said on Friday.
“Salvage operations were completed on Feb. 16 off the coast of South Carolina after naval units assigned to the U.S. Northern Command successfully located and recovered the PRC highaltitude surveillance balloon wreckage,” he said in a Northcom statement, citing the People’s Republic of China.
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“The final wreckage will be taken to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) laboratory in Virginia for use in counterintelligence,” he added.
The balloon flew through much of the United States before being shot down over the Atlantic by a US F22 Raptor fighter on February 4.
Beijing insisted it was a lost weather observation device, while Washington described it as a sophisticated, highaltitude spy vehicle.
Relations between China and the United States have become increasingly strained since the balloon accident.
US planes also shot down three unidentified objects in the days that followed, but Washington later said preliminary evidence indicated they were not part of a Chinese spy program.
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© Agence FrancePresse