John Kirby: Don't be surprised by China's balloon 'bluster'

The U.S. "shouldn't be surprised" by China's response to the Biden administration shooting down their spy balloon, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Sunday.

“We shouldn't be surprised about the Chinese rhetoric coming out of this and the bluster they are known to put out in the information space after a discussion like this," Kirby said on "Fox News Sunday," referring to Secretary of State Antony Blinken's conversation with Wang Yi, director of China's Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs.

Blinken said he did not receive an apology from Wang regarding the balloon when they met Saturday, while attending the Munich Security Conference.

Wang has heavily criticized the Biden administration shooting down the Chinese spy balloon as a "weak" and "near-hysterical" response that amounted to an "excessive use of force."

The discussion between the two leaders was "a forthright, very candid exchange" which "laid bare our deep concerns about what they did," Kirby told Fox host Shannon Bream.

He maintained that the manner in which the Chinese balloon was shot down allowed the U.S. to collect its debris.

"Now we have that debris, and we’re going to exploit that debris. We're going to learn more about this system,” Kirby said.

The U.S. downed the surveillance balloon off the coast of the Carolinas earlier this month, after it crossed the continent over the course of a week.

"We acted accordingly, and believe me, the message was clearly sent to China this is unacceptable," Kirby said Sunday.

Since then, the administration has directed three additional objects to be shot down, but those are now believed to have been benign, Kirby said earlier this week. "Nothing right now suggests that they were related to China’s spy balloon program or that they were surveillance vehicles from any other country,” President Joe Biden added on Thursday.