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China’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that a balloon the U.S. suspects of conducting surveillance was a civilian “airship” used for research, mainly meteorological purposes.

In a statement, the agency said that the airship has limited steering capability and “deviated far from its planned course” because of winds

China’s Foreign Ministry said China regrets the unintended entry of the airship into U.S. airspace.

“The airship is from China,” a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes. Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course.”

“The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure,” the statement reads. “The Chinese side will continue communicating with the U.S. side and properly handle this unexpected situation caused by force majeure.”

Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Friday the United States is “aware of the PRC statement,” adding: “However, the fact is, we know that it’s a surveillance balloon and I’m not going to be able to be more specific than that.”

“We do know the balloon has violated U.S. airspace and international law, which is unacceptable,” Ryder added, noting they have conveyed this to China’s government.

“While we won’t get into specifics in regards to the exact location I can tell you that the balloon continues to move eastward and is currently over the center of the continental United States,” Ryder added. “Again, we currently assess that the balloon does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground at this time.” 

Ryder said the United States would “continue to monitor, in terms of way ahead, we will continue to review options,” and that current assessments estimate the balloon – which is flying around 60,000 feet in the air, well above typical civilian airspace – will remain over the U.S. for “a few days.”

While Ryder would not clarify where exactly the balloon is as of Friday, he said the Pentagon would “do our best to keep you and the public informed in general terms on where the balloon is.”

The Pentagon decided not to shoot down the balloon, which was potentially flying over sensitive sites, because of concerns of hurting people on the ground

“In terms of the discussions about whether or not to shoot down this balloon, that was an option,” Ryder said Friday, adding: “We do recognize that any potential debris field would be significant and potentially cause civilian injuries or deaths, or significant property damage.”

It was not clear what will happen with the balloon if it isn’t brought down.

Discovery of the balloon was announced by Pentagon officials who said one of the places it was spotted was over the state of Montana, which is home to one of America’s three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base.

“Once the balloon was detected, we acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Ryder said Friday.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed a planned high-stakes weekend diplomatic trip to China as the Biden administration weighs a broader response to the discovery of the balloon, according to a U.S. official.

The decision came just hours before Blinken had been due to depart Washington for Beijing and marked a new blow to already strained U.S.-Chinese relations. The official said Blinken and President Joe Biden determined it was best not to proceed with the trip at this time.

Blinken’s long-anticipated meetings with senior Chinese officials had been seen in both countries as a way to find some areas of common ground amid major disagreements over Taiwan, human rights, China’s claims in the South China Sea, North Korea, Russia’s war in Ukraine, trade policy and climate change.

Although the trip, which was agreed to in November by President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a summit in Indonesia, had not been formally announced, officials in both Beijing and Washington had been talking in recent days about Blinken’s imminent arrival.

The meetings were to begin on Sunday and go through Monday.

Mao said China was working to understand the situation in the hopes “that both sides can handle this together calmly and carefully.”

“China is a responsible country and has always strictly abided by international laws, and China has no intention of violating the territory and airspace of any sovereign country,” she said.

A day earlier, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said similar balloon activity has been seen in the past several years and the government has taken steps to ensure no sensitive information was stolen.

He said the balloon was traveling well above the height commercial aircraft fly at and didn’t present a threat to people on the ground.

Biden was briefed and asked the military to present options, according to a senior administration official, who was also not authorized to publicly discuss sensitive information. The senior defense official said the U.S. prepared fighter jets, including F-22s, to shoot down the balloon if ordered.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, advised against taking “kinetic action” because of risks to the safety of people on the ground. Biden accepted that recommendation.

Even though the balloon was over a sparsely populated area of Montana, its size would create a debris field large enough that it could have put people at risk.

The defense official would not specify the size of the balloon but said commercial pilots could spot it from their cockpits.

The surveillance balloon was first reported by NBC News.

A photograph of a large white balloon lingering over the area was captured by The Billings Gazette. The balloon could be seen drifting in and out of clouds and had what appeared to be a solar array hanging from the bottom, said Gazette photographer Larry Mayer.

The balloon’s appearance adds to national security concerns among American lawmakers over China’s influence in the U.S., ranging from the prevalence of the hugely popular smartphone app TikTok to purchases of American farmland.

“China’s brazen disregard for U.S. sovereignty is a destabilizing action that must be addressed,” Republican Party House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted.

Tensions with China are particularly high on numerous issues, ranging from Taiwan and the South China Sea to human rights in China’s western Xinjiang region and the clampdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong. Not least on that list of irritants are China’s tacit support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its refusal to rein in North Korea’s expanding ballistic missile program and ongoing disputes over trade and technology.

On Tuesday, Taiwan scrambled fighter jets, put its navy on alert and activated missile systems in response to nearby operations by 34 Chinese military aircraft and nine warships that are part Beijing’s strategy to unsettle and intimidate the self-governing island democracy.

Twenty of those aircraft crossed the central line in the Taiwan Strait that has long been an unofficial buffer zone between the two sides, which separated during a civil war in 1949.

Beijing has also increased preparations for a potential blockade or military action against Taiwan, which has stirred increasing concern among military leaders, diplomats and elected officials in the U.S., Taiwan’s key ally.