United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed his trip to China following the discovery of a Chinese weather research balloon over U.S. airspace. 

Officials of the state department confirmed the postponement anonymously to New York Times.

China, through a spokesperson from its foreign ministry, on Friday, described the surveillance balloon as a stray civilian weather research technology. 

Beijing said the balloon had “deviated far from its planned course” and expressed its regret to Washington over the device’s unlawful entry into U.S. airspace. 

“The airship is from China. It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes,” an unnamed ministry spokesperson said in a statement on its website.

“Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into U.S. airspace due to force majeure,” the spokesperson added. 

The spokesperson further stated that Beijing would now talk with U.S. officials about how to “properly handle this unexpected situation.” 

The Pentagon earlier admitted that the balloon did not constitute a significant military intelligence risk as the device could not access surveillance beyond what is obtainable by satellite images.