No Letting Go: US Won't Return Remains of China's Balloon, Vows to 'Exploit' Device

Despite Beijing's protest over the US decision to shoot down a Chinese civilian research balloon, it seems the US won't be giving back what little remains of the device. US officials have said a study of the wreckage will reveal much but have not elaborated on what exactly will be brought to light.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan has admitted that while recovering the Chinese balloon will take time, the Biden administration intends to retrieve the device in order to "exploit what we recover and learn even more than we have learned."

Sullivan spoke on the downed weather aerostat on Monday during an appearance at the US Global Leadership Coalition summit.

Noting that service members with the US Navy and Coast Guard were en route to recover the balloon, the official further stated Washington has already learned a lot since security services monitored the balloon as it traveled over its own territory.

John Kirby, who serves as the coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, referred to Sullivan’s remarks in a briefing on Monday:

"Our efforts to surveil this balloon and what we’re going to learn from the recovery will prove to be valuable,” he said. “The time that we had to study this balloon over the course of a few days last week, we believe, was important and will give us a lot more clarity not only on the capabilities that these balloons have but what China is trying to do with them."

However, Kirby declined to discuss the possibility that Chinese President Xi Jinping knew about the balloon situation before the information became public. The official also indicated that Biden administration officials had contacted Trump-era officials and provided them with information regarding the incident:

"I can tell you that we have reached out to key officials from the previous administration and offered them briefings on the forensics that we did and expressed our willingness to walk them through what we learned. And I think that’s kind of where I need to leave that one," the spokesman said.

In the wake of the balloon's discovery, the Biden administration faced a wave of criticism, even more so after US authorities opted to shoot the balloon down off the US East Coast over the weekend. In fact, many experts and politicians have said Biden did not act decisively enough.

Sullivan explained it took a longer amount of time to down the balloon as White House officials wanted to to rule out possible injury and destruction on the ground, also adding that: "The first time any American president ordered a shoot down of any of these balloons was on Saturday, when Joe Biden did it."

Reports of the balloon first surfaced on February 2, after Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder confirmed to the public that intelligence officials had been tracking a perceived surveillance balloon over the Montana airspace. However, China has since blasted the speculation surrounding the incident as inappropriate after the Chinese Foreign Ministry explained the aircraft was used for civilian meteorological research.