The US has shot down a Chinese spy balloon off its eastern coastline after it traversed sensitive military sites. 

China is condemning the choice to shoot the surveillance device down, using its first official public reaction to the operation to warn it could respond.

Beijing’s foreign ministry said US President Joe Biden’s order was an “obvious overreaction” that “seriously violated international conventions”.

Chinese spy balloon shot down. #ChineseSpyBalloon pic.twitter.com/2LNUUf0Qpr

— Devon Pace (@elitedevon) February 4, 2023

US correspondent Jonathan Kearsley told Laurel, Gary & Mark initial claims by China that it was simply a weather balloon have been ruled out.

“It had a whole bunch of what they’re calling a ‘payload’, so there’s basically a mass amount of technology that is underneath this balloon,” he said.

“[President Biden] had actually called for it to be shot down on Wednesday but was advised by his Defense officials that they wanted to wait until it was over water, not over land.”

Press PLAY below to hear why the US took so long to shoot it down + what happens next 

Image: 9News