U.S. President Biden says will contact China’s Xi in wake of spy balloons

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said he would talk to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in the wake of the U.S. Air Force shooting down what Washington said was a high-tech Chinese spy balloon earlier this month.

"I expect to be speaking with President Xi and... we're going to get to the bottom of this," Biden said in his most extensive public remarks since the incident on February 4.

While stressing that the United States was "not looking for a new Cold War," Biden said. "I make no apologies for taking down that balloon."

"We'll always act to protect the interests of the American people and the security of the American people,” he added.

The U.S. has been in a state of alarm since a huge white balloon from China was spotted tracking over a series of top-secret nuclear weapons sites, before being shot down just off the east coast. In the wake of the incident, the U.S. military adjusted radar settings to detect smaller objects and promptly discovered three more unidentified craft that Biden ordered shot down – one over Alaska, another over Canada, and the third over Lake Huron off Michigan.

China urged that the balloon was just a stray weather research craft, but U.S. officials claimed they had conclusive evidence that the balloon was sent to spy.

The incident prompted a diplomatic rift, with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceling a rare visit to China. Beijing accused Washington of overreacting and suggested that U.S. balloons had overflown Chinese territory, something the Biden administration denies.