Tan Kefei, the seventh spokesperson of China's Ministry of National Defense. Photo: website of Ministry of National Defense

The Chinese Defense Ministry on Sunday protested against the US' move to shoot down a Chinese civilian unmanned airship which made an unintended entry into the US airspace due to force majeure. Experts said that US' reaction could escalate tensions between the two countries' militaries.

The US' attack on Chinese civilian unmanned airship by force is an obvious overreaction, Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, a spokesperson at China's Ministry of National Defense, said in a statement on Sunday.

Tan's statement came after an F-22 fighter of the US Air Force fired an AIM-9X air-to-air missile and shot down the balloon, the Pentagon said on the day on its website, despite admitting that the balloon did not pose a military or physical threat.

The balloon in question is a Chinese unmanned civilian airship used mainly for meteorological research purposes which made an unintended entry into the US airspace due to force majeure, namely the Westerlies and the airship's limited self-steering capability, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

From a technical point of view, the US' move is like shooting a mosquito with a cannon, which is not only overreacting but also impractical, a Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Sunday.

Compared with an unmanned, unpowered balloon that flies with the wind, the US interception method that featured an advanced stealth fighter jet and fired a missile is too costly. If more balloons, not necessarily from China, fly across the US, the US Air Force would be exhausted in intercepting them in this way, the expert said.

It is more of a political show, as the balloon was only shot down after it already travelled across the US and was about to leave, observers said.

China sternly protests against this move and reserves rights to take necessary measures in dealing with similar situations, Tan said.

Tan's remark means that if a foreign airship accidentally enters the Chinese airspace, the Chinese forces could also shoot it down in a similar manner, and the US move will significantly impact the two countries' military-to-military relations, observers said.

It is widely known that US aircraft, appearing in civilian or military purposes, operate around China much more frequent than Chinese aircraft do around the US, Lü Xiang, an expert on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday.

If the US does not differentiate between civilian and military aircraft, then it has made a very bad precedent in treating the China-US relations, Lü said.

The US frequently conducts close-in reconnaissance on China's doorsteps in the South China Sea, the Taiwan Straits and the East China Sea, sometimes in civilian disguises, according to think tanks and media reports.

"If the US does not make the difference, should China make a difference? Should China also take reciprocal measures? The US must carefully consider the consequences" Lü said.