Beijing made a serious presentation to Washington for the destruction of a Chinese balloon in United States airspace. This is stated in a statement on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.

According to the Foreign Ministry, on February 5, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng, on behalf of the Chinese government, "made a serious presentation to the person in charge of the US Embassy for the use of weapons by the American side to strike a Chinese civilian balloon."

Earlier, the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the actions of the United States, which shot down a Chinese balloon over its territory, speak of the frivolity and irresponsibility of Washington.

On February 5, the US military shot down a civilian balloon belonging to China over US territory. In the United States, 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.

The Air Force systems specialist and president of IRIS Independent Research later said that the downing of the alleged Chinese spy balloon was the first time that an F-22 Raptor fighter jet had carried out such an operation since its debut in combat operations in Syria and Iraq almost 10 years ago.