"China expresses strong dissatisfaction and protests against the use of force by the United States to attack the unmanned civilian airship," Beijing's foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that it would "reserve the right to make further necessary responses".
The craft spent several days flying over North America, ratcheting up tensions between Washington and Beijing, before it was brought down by a missile shot from an F-22 jet on Saturday, Pentagon officials said.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called the operation a "deliberate and lawful action" that came in response to China's "unacceptable violation of our sovereignty".
American officials first said on Thursday that they were tracking a large Chinese "surveillance balloon" in US skies.
That led Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday to scrap a rare trip to Beijing designed to contain rising US-China tensions.
After initial hesitation, Beijing admitted ownership of the "airship", but said it was a weather balloon that had been blown off course.
The Chinese foreign ministry on Sunday said it had "clearly requested that the United States properly handle the matter in a calm, professional and restrained manner".
Beijing said the United States "insisted on using force, clearly overreacting and seriously violating international practice".
"China will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of relevant enterprises and reserve the right to make further necessary responses," the ministry said in its statement.
Beijing says US media, politicians used balloon incident 'as pretext to smear China'
Beijing (AFP) Feb 4, 2023 - Beijing said Saturday that US media and politicians had taken advantage of US allegations that China flew an espionage balloon over the northwest United States.
The discovery of the balloon prompted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday to cancel a rare planned trip to Beijing.
Moments before the decision to scrap the visit -- aimed at easing tensions between the two countries -- China issued a rare statement of regret and blamed winds for pushing what it called a civilian airship into US airspace.
On Saturday, China's foreign ministry released another statement addressing Blinken's announcement.
"China... never violated the territory and airspace of any sovereign country," it said.
"Some politicians and media in the United States used the (balloon) incident as a pretext to attack and smear China."
The ministry said maintaining communication channels at all levels was important, "especially in dealing with some unexpected situations in a calm and reliable manner".
The statement further added with regards to Blinken's trip, which was to have begun Sunday and had been widely publicised in the United States: "As a matter of fact, neither China nor the United States has announced any visit.
"It is the United States' own decision to release the relevant information and we respect that."
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