China blasts U.S. over response to balloon incursion

A statement issued by the National People's Congress's Foreign Affairs Committee repeated Beijing’s insistence that the balloon was an unmanned civilian weather research airship, a claim the U.S. has dismissed citing its flight route and payload of surveillance equipment.

China's Parliament has accused American law-makers of trampling on the sovereignty of other nations after the U.S. passed a measure condemning a suspected Chinese spy balloon's intrusion into U.S. airspace.

A statement issued on February 16 by the National People's Congress's Foreign Affairs Committee repeated Beijing’s insistence that the balloon was an unmanned civilian weather research airship, a claim the U.S. has dismissed citing its flight route and payload of surveillance equipment.

Explained: The saga of Chinese spy balloon in US airspace

While China at first expressed regret over the February 4 incident, it has toughened its rhetoric in a further sign of how badly relations between the sides have deteriorated in recent years.

On Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry said it will take measures against U.S. entities somehow related to the downing of the balloon, without giving details.

The resolution earlier passed unanimously by the U.S. House of Representatives “deliberately exaggerated the ‘China threat,'" the Foreign Relations Committee statement said.

That was “purely malicious hype and political manipulation," it said. “Some U.S. Congress politicians fanned the flames, fully exposing their sinister designs to oppose China and contain China."