Biden to speak with Xi Jinping following spy balloon shoot-down

President Joe Biden said on Thursday he expects to speak with President Xi Jinping after the detection and later shoot-down of a Chinese surveillance balloon led to a spike in tensions between the two countries.

"I expect to be speaking with President Xi and I hope we are going to get to the bottom of this," Biden said during an address from the White House. "But I make no apologies for taking down that balloon."

Biden’s comments come days after the U.S. military shot down three unidentified objects last weekend. He said the intelligence community believes these objects were "most likely balloons" involving private companies and scientific research.

He added that "nothing right now suggests they were related to China's spy balloon program" or from any other country.

Lawmakers from both parties have criticized the president over the past few days for remaining mostly silent on the issue. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called for greater transparency and for Biden to explain the military's rationale for the multiple shoot-downs and the policy moving forward.

“At some point in time, the president needs to talk to the American people. There's a lot of people very concerned,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said on Fox News Wednesday. “Freedom of privacy is a big issue in Montana and across this country. People are concerned. I think it would help.”

Biden added in his address that his team will be creating parameters to deal with aerial objects. He said these parameters will be shared with Congress when completed, but will remain classified so that “we don’t give a road map to our enemies to try to evade our defenses.”

“Going forward, these parameters will guide what actions we will take when responding to unmanned and unidentified aerial objects,” Biden said. “We’re going to keep adapting them as the challenges evolve, if it evolves.”

The Senate attended a classified briefing on Wednesday on the initial Chinese balloon. Senators from both parties said they had unanswered questions following the briefing.

Biden also said he directed national security adviser Jake Sullivan to “lead a governmentwide effort” to prepare the U.S. to “deal safely and effectively with the objects in our airspace.”

These efforts include creating an accessible and updated inventory of unmanned objects in U.S. airspace, implementing measures to improve the ability to detect those objects, and updating the rules regarding launching and maintaining aerial craft, Biden said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will also work to establish global norms on the issue, he said.

The day the military shot down the spy balloon, Feb. 4, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attempted to speak with his Chinese counterpart. But Chinese Minister of Defense Wei Fenghe refused to take the call.

In the days after, Beijing accused the U.S. of sending its own spy balloons over China, a claim the White House denied.