Republican senators are pushing for President Biden to elucidate why a Chinese spy balloon was allowed to drift throughout the U.S. earlier this 12 months earlier than being shot down. 

In a letter spearheaded by Sens. Marco Rubio and Roger Wicker, the lawmakers expressed frustration with the shortage of transparency in regards to the incident. 

“While four months have passed since a Chinese surveillance balloon was allowed to fly across the United States, your administration has yet to provide the American people a full accounting of how this spy platform was allowed to traverse across sovereign U.S. territory, what the balloon carried, and what it collected during its mission,” the senators wrote. 

The letter got here as Secretary of State Antony Blinken departs for an official go to to China. Mr. Blinken was scheduled to go to the communist energy in February however that journey was scrapped due to the balloon incursion.

At the time of the postponement, there was hypothesis that Beijing had canceled the journey due to issues the U.S. would make public the findings of the FBI’s investigation into the balloon. 

The senators stated the U.S. ought to tackle the rumors by making public assessments of the spy balloon. 

“Beijing continues to test U.S. resolve and tarnish U.S. credibility — we must respond with strength, or risk further aggression from America’s adversaries,” they wrote. 

Earlier this 12 months, a spy balloon was noticed flying over Canada and Montana. The flight path of the item was close to U.S. navy installations. The balloon was allowed to journey throughout a lot of the continental U.S. earlier than being shot down off the coast of South Carolina. 

Administration officers stated that permitting the item to stay in flight was the one method to make sure it might be shot down in an space the place retrieval can be doable.

NBC News reported Mr. Biden had sought to talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping after the U.S. navy shot down the balloon, however was begged off by advisers. 

Administration officers reportedly believed {that a} telephone name between the 2 leaders would do little to place the U.S.-China “relationship back on track.”

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