Biden says three of the objects shot down were not linked to China

So President Biden says three unidentified flying objects that were recently shot down over North America are likely not linked to China's spy program. He weighed in on the investigation yesterday and Ed O'Keefe has more on this from the White House. Ed, good morning. Good to see you. The intelligence community now believes that these balloons weren't a threat and probably just there for research or weather monitoring, according to the president. But after the shootdown of those three objects last weekend, he's now asking for new protocols to help distinguish between unmanned objects that are a threat and those that aren't. I gave the order to take down these three objects.

President Biden telling the public Thursday what he knows and still doesn't know about the objects that were up there and ordered shot down. Nothing right now suggests they were related to China's spy balloon program. The unknown objects may not have ties to China, but officials say that large balloon that traveled across the U.S. before being shot down off South Carolina's coast definitely did. They just shot it. And the president says he plans to bring it up with China's leader.

I expect to be speaking with President Xi. CBS News has learned the spy balloon was first detected in late January after launching off the South Coast of China. U.S. intelligence officials believe its intended course was just over Guam and Hawaii. But winds blew it towards Alaska, across Canada and the continental U.S.

before it drifted off the East Coast. We shot it down, sending a clear message, clear message. The violation of our sovereignty is unacceptable. Navy and FBI dive teams recovered the majority of the Chinese balloon debris, but U.S. and Canadian authorities are still trying to track down what remains of the other three objects, which were detected with recently expanded radar sensors. There are hundreds of these cases being reported.

We don't do a good job of monitoring. We don't have a systemized way to respond to it. To address that, the president laid out future protocol, including establishing an updated inventory of these airborne objects, putting measures in place to improve detection, and updating rules that help better distinguish between objects that pose a risk and those that don't. But make no mistake, if any object presents a threat to the safety, security of the American people, I will take it down. So it's not clear when President Biden might speak with Chinese President Xi, but overnight Chinese responded to all of this by saying that the U.S. needs to bring back sound and steady relations.

Anne-Marie? Well, that sounds reasonable. Now that we know that the other balloons were not related to this Chinese spying program, but one definitely was, what is the White House saying about how this could impact the relationship with China? Well, you know, the president repeatedly yesterday in that speech and in a separate interview said he doesn't believe that President Xi would do something to set back relations with the United States or with the president personally. President says a lot of this in public in a way that I think is designed to reach the Chinese leader and sort of remind him, hey buddy, there's no reason to mess up what are already fragile relations. We're still here and ready to talk to you. But he doesn't get into the details of why he thinks that is other than to remind us that he's met with them dozens of times back in the day when they were both effectively the number twos of their countries. But you know, the only thing we know for certain is, you know, a series of meetings that were supposed to be going on that haven't been happening. The Pentagon has said that when they call the U.

S.-Chinese equivalent of the Red Phone, so to speak, to try to talk to Chinese military leaders, they're not answering. And of course we keep seeing these statements back and forth between the two countries that kind of, you know, give off somewhat aggressive vibes that suggest that they both agree they've got to get back to making things better than they have been. Right, because the whole idea behind the Secretary of State's visit to China that ended up getting postponed indefinitely was to sort of cool things down. Can you explain the significance then of Secretary of State Blinken potentially meeting with his Chinese counterpart, or what does it say if he doesn't end up, they don't end up speaking at all at the conference? Yeah, so they're supposed to potentially cross pass this weekend at the Munich Security Conference, which is in essence the largest concert festival for diplomats all over the world. There's no music, but it's just a big gathering and they all like to go. In fact, dozens of members of Congress are also going because they know that this is a huge opportunity for foreign policy discussions.

And so it's a great opportunity potentially for Secretary Blinken to meet with his Chinese counterparts. No official word yet on whether that'll happen would be a good sign, if it does happen, that they can have these conversations and do it there in the midst of colleagues from all over the world. But look, there's statements made by the U.S. at least that say, look, we don't have to be best friends with China. And we certainly don't want to start a new Cold War and be their mortal enemy. We just need to figure out how to get along while we're both serving as the two biggest world superpowers at this point.

The Secretary of State's trip was obviously designed to help start making things better. It's been postponed, not canceled. And if we get a signal this weekend that U.S. and Chinese officials met, well, then perhaps things are off to a better start. Well, let's hope so, Ed. Thank you very much.

Take care.

China, U.S.-China relations, Chinese spy balloon, shot down, joe biden, antony blinken, CBS News, news