By — Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin By — Zeba Warsi Zeba Warsi By — Teresa Cebrián Aranda Teresa Cebrián Aranda Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/chinese-surveillance-balloon-over-u-s-raises-tensions-in-already-strained-relationship Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio Defense Department officials are tracking a suspected Chinese spy balloon that is making its way across the central part of the U.S. Senior officials say it’s maneuverable, designed for surveillance and Beijing was “trying to fly this balloon over sensitive sites.” Secretary of State Blinken decided to postpone a high-profile trip to China in response. Nick Schifrin reports. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Amna Nawaz: Turning now to our other lead story tonight, Secretary Blinken decided to postpone a high-profile trip to Beijing this weekend, in response to what the U.S. calls a Chinese spy balloon currently floating eastward across the country.Nick Schifrin has that story. Man: It's about 5:30 on Wednesday, February 1, 2023. Nick Schifrin: It was first spotted over Montana. Man: I have no idea what this thing is. I hope it is in focus. Nick Schifrin: This morning spotted 1,000 miles to the southeast above St. Joseph, Missouri. The U.S. calls it a spy balloon. Beijing today called it a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological purposes, that deviated far from its plan course."The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship in the U.S. airspace due to force majeure," or uncontrolled forces.But senior U.S. officials say it is maneuverable, designed for surveillance, and Beijing was — quote — "trying to fly this balloon over sensitive sites." Montana is home to one of the U.S.' three intercontinental ballistic missile silos.Yesterday, the U.S. mobilized F-22 jets. But administration officials says President Biden took his military advisers advice and decided not to shoot the balloon down because of the risk to people on the ground. Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, Pentagon Press Secretary: We do recognize that any potential debris field would be significant and potentially cause civilian injuries or deaths or significant property damage. Nick Schifrin: Today, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled what would have been the most senior trip of the Biden administration to China.Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State: What this has done is created the conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip, including ongoing efforts to build a floor under the relationship and to address a broad range of issues that are of concern to the American people, I believe to the Chinese people, and certainly as well to people around the world. Nick Schifrin: U.S. officials say China has sent spy balloons over the U.S. before, but never for this extended period of time and never right before a secretary of state visit. Antony Blinken: The most important thing right now in the moment is to see that this surveillance asset gets out of our airspace. Nick Schifrin: But House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Representative Mike McCaul said the administration should have shut it down earlier. "This balloon should have never been allowed to enter U.S. airspace. It now poses a direct and ongoing national security threat to the U.S. homeland." Paul Fetkowitz, Kaymont Consolidated Industries: It's certainly not a standard weather balloon. That's a given. Nick Schifrin: Paul Fetkowitz owns Kaymont Consolidated Industries, the largest American provider of meteorological balloons to the U.S. government, including the military Paul Fetkowitz: We can see on it that there's solar arrays to have a battery power to supply power to maybe a camera, maybe a heat source. The fact that they don't want us to gently bring the balloon down in our territory and have us go grab it for them is — it's kind of saying something to me that they don't want — they don't want anybody to get their hands on this balloon. Man: We got this weird thing above us. This thing is weird. Nick Schifrin: The current trajectory shows the balloon will float toward the Atlantic Ocean. U.S. officials won't reveal their plans, other than to say they're monitoring it.For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin. Man: It is not the moon. Listen to this Segment Watch Watch the Full Episode PBS NewsHour from Feb 03, 2023 By — Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin is PBS NewsHour’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent. He leads NewsHour’s daily foreign coverage, including multiple trips to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion, and has created weeklong series for the NewsHour from nearly a dozen countries. The PBS NewsHour series “Inside Putin’s Russia” won a 2017 Peabody Award and the National Press Club’s Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence. In 2020 Schifrin received the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Media Award for Distinguished Reporting and Analysis of Foreign Affairs. He was a member of the NewsHour teams awarded a 2021 Peabody for coverage of COVID-19, and a 2023 duPont Columbia Award for coverage of Afghanistan and Ukraine. Prior to PBS NewsHour, Schifrin was Al Jazeera America's Middle East correspondent. He led the channel’s coverage of the 2014 war in Gaza; reported on the Syrian war from Syria's Turkish, Lebanese and Jordanian borders; and covered the annexation of Crimea. He won an Overseas Press Club award for his Gaza coverage and a National Headliners Award for his Ukraine coverage. From 2008-2012, Schifrin served as the ABC News correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2011 he was one of the first journalists to arrive in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after Osama bin Laden’s death and delivered one of the year’s biggest exclusives: the first video from inside bin Laden’s compound. His reporting helped ABC News win an Edward R. Murrow award for its bin Laden coverage. Schifrin is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a board member of the Overseas Press Club Foundation. He has a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a Master of International Public Policy degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). @nickschifrin By — Zeba Warsi Zeba Warsi Zeba Warsi is a foreign affairs producer, based in Washington DC. She's a Columbia Journalism School graduate with an M.A. in Political journalism. She was one of the leading members of the NewsHour team that won the 2024 Peabody award for News for our coverage of the war in Gaza and Israel. @Zebaism By — Teresa Cebrián Aranda Teresa Cebrián Aranda Teresa is a Producer on the Foreign Affairs & Defense Unit at PBS NewsHour. She writes and produces daily segments for the millions of viewers in the U.S. and beyond who depend on PBS NewsHour for timely, relevant information on the world’s biggest issues. She’s reported on authoritarianism in Latin America, rising violence in Haiti, Egypt’s crackdown on human rights, Israel’s judicial reforms and China’s zero-covid policy, among other topics. Teresa also contributed to the PBS NewsHour’s coverage of the war in Ukraine, which was named recipient of a duPont-Columbia Award in 2023, and was part of a team awarded with a Peabody Award for the NewsHour’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.