The US released images of the shot-down spy balloon getting retrieved from the Atlantic Ocean as China demanded that the pieces be given back.

Navy divers recovered the debris off the coast of South Carolina over several days after the balloon was shot down on Saturday. The Pentagon on Tuesday released photos of the mission, with one showing nine crew members pulling white plastic material and black tubes onto a small boat in the dark.

Another image, also in the night, showed ten Navy members working to drag the white material on board as their boat tilted. A second boat floated alongside in the effort.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Tuesday said the balloon ‘does not belong to the US, it belongs to China’, according to Fox News.

On Monday, China’s ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, called on the US to return the debris.

‘If a person picks up something on the street and knows who the owner is, he should return it to the owner,’ Lu told the French channel LCI.

The Chinese diplomat said that the US failing to return the parts showed that it was being ‘dishonest’ in dealings with China. Lu reiterated that the balloon was a civilian meteorological apparatus and accused the US of ‘exaggerating’ the matter.

‘It is not uncommon to see American spy balloons, or balloons used for other purposes,’ Lu said.

But National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Monday conveyed that the US is not planning to cooperate with China’s request.

‘I know of no such intention of plans to return it,’ Kirby said.

The balloon measuring up to 200 feet tall was discovered hovering over Montana, which houses top secret military facilities, and other parts of the US. It floated over to the east coast, where President Joe Biden ordered it to be taken down.

It has worsened already tense relations between the two superpowers, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken indefinitely postponing a diplomatic trip to China that was planned since November.

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