Biden says 3 downed aerial objects 'likely' tied to private groups

WASHINGTON

US President Joe Biden said Thursday that three aerial objects downed in American and Canadian airspace are "most likely" balloons belonging to private companies or institutions.

The objects were shot down by US jets in the immediate aftermath of the discovery of a Chinese suspected surveillance balloon, which was taken down off the coast of the state of South Carolina on Feb. 4 after crossing the continental US, including sensitive military sites that Washington believes it was likely conducting surveillance on the facilities.

But Biden said the US intelligence community believes the three additional objects were almost certainly owned by private organizations "studying weather, or conducting other scientific research," and said there is no current evidence to suggest "there has been a sudden increase in the number of objects in the sky."

The US last week shot down the three unidentified objects above Alaska, Canada’s Yukon region -- at Canada’s request -- and Lake Huron, one of the five Great Lakes.

The president's decision to down the Chinese high-altitude balloon elicited furor from Beijing, which has threatened to designate US entities associated with the downing of its aircraft. It has yet to explicitly do so but on Thursday it imposed sanctions on Lockheed Martin and a branch of Raytheon Technologies over their arms sales to Taiwan, which China views as a breakaway province.

Still, already rampant tensions in US-Sino relations have only grown worse in the wake of the balloon's downing. Secretary of State Antony Blinken indefinitely postponed a long-planned trip to Beijing that was intended to soothe growing divides between the world's preeminent super powers days before he was slated to depart.

China acknowledged its ownership of the balloon but said it was a wayward weather monitoring device that was blown off course.

In the face of China's consternation, Biden was unrepentant, saying his decision to shoot down the aircraft was intended to send "a clear message" to Beijing that the "violation of our sovereignty is unacceptable."

"We will act to protect our country, and we did," he said. "We're not looking for a new Cold War, but I make no apologies, and we will compete. We will responsibly manage that competition to make sure it doesn't veer into conflict."

Biden said he expects to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying "we're going to get to the bottom of this."