WASHINGTON – Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, both R-ND, issued the following statements after the U.S. shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon in American airspace.

“This blatant violation of U.S. airspace demonstrates China’s growing aggression toward our nation and our allies, and the Biden administration should have acted sooner, rather than allow an adversary to conduct surveillance from one end of our country to the next,” Hoeven said. “The best response to China is one of strength, and we need to firmly push back whenever they challenge us. That’s why we will continue working to modernize our nuclear forces, while strengthening our ISR and hypersonic missile capabilities, to ensure we can deter or defeat any threat that China poses.”

“TikTok collects data from millions of Americans every day, and a food processing company with ties to the CCP moved to purchase land just 12 miles from a top military base in North Dakota,” Cramer said. “Now, a high-altitude Chinese spy balloon – floating low enough for people to look up and see in the sky – was flown from Alaska to South Carolina. While I am glad the Biden Administration finally acted to address this national security threat, the mere fact China feels comfortable pulling a stunt like this demonstrates the weakness they see in our president. The entire saga warrants a full investigation into why China was able to penetrate our airspace and surveil our assets. Failure to react is a sign of weakness, and weakness only invites bullies like China to be more aggressive.”