Republican Senator Marco Rubio told ABC that China sent a balloon into US airspace to demonstrate the decline of the United States.

He admitted that the Chinese side knew exactly what they were doing. Beijing understood that the Americans would see a balloon in the sky.

The senator believes that the "message" is intended to show that the US is currently "devastated" and "in decline."

In addition, Rubio demanded specific and detailed explanations from the Pentagon for what reason the balloon had not been shot down earlier and what information he could collect.

Earlier, the US military shot down a civilian balloon belonging to China over the territory of the United States.

In the United States of America, a Chinese balloon that flew across the country was considered a spy device. In Beijing, they said that the balloon is civilian and ended up over the United States by accident.