really developing. it is not known what the chinese is trying to do with this thing despite the apology issued this morning. the chinese government saying it is wayward weather research balloon. let s get to it, and even more mounting at the hour. and first to kiley adwood who is here with me. what are you hearing from the state department about blinken s trip now being postponed, kiley? we just got off of the phone with the senior white house official, and they they this balloon is violating international law and sovereignty. and this morning, secretary blinken called his counterpart and said that the conditions are not right for this trip. so it is a last-minute cancellation. we don t have a date for when is going to be replanned. i asked what are the conditions for this trip to be rescheduled, and they would not say. they said that china regrets this, but what the united states is clear on is their assessment, that it is a chinese spy balloon, and it is over u.s. territo
it s the top of the hour in cnn newsroom. we re following multi-. concerns about that chinese spy balloon hovering over the u.s. secretary blinken just postponed his stop in china. the pentagon is about the size of three buses. it s huge. it was spotted soaring over montana at 60,000 feet. just moments ago the balloon was spotted over columbia, missouri. the national weather service tweeted these images of what they say is a large balloon in the kansas city area. despite growing calls to shoot it down, for now president biden is opting against that. the chinese are saying it s a weather balloon that blew off course. we re aware of the statement. the fact is we know it s a surveillance balloon. i can t be more specific than that. we know the balloon has violated u.s. air space and international law which is unacceptable. we ve conveyed this directly to the prc at multiple levels. john miller is here with us, cnn s intelligence analyst and kylie atwood. tell us abo
the full knowledge of the chinese, and if it is their vehicle and they control it, demand them to bring it for the ground, and if they can t do it, so then we have the military option to do so. i think that for the many reasons it is the possible course, and that is something that u.s. military should manage to bring it down to the ground. good point. jamil, this balloon is not inconspicuous to the u.s., and it is not small by any stretch of the imagination, and when you were talking about what does a spy balloon give you that a low orbiting satellite of earth get you? but beyond that, do you see blinken postponing, and the fact that the pentagon is talk about it, and when there have been balloons that floated over the american territory in the past, could they be trying to establish, and i ll call it a red line, but some sort of new
john miller is here with us, cnn s intelligence analyst and kylie atwood. tell us about blinken postponing his trip. he was supposed to be heading to china to meet with officials in beijing tonight. it was canceled this morning. he called his chinese counterpart to explain that the u.s. assessment was that the conditions for this trip aren t right anymore. that s because of this balloon. senior state department officials are saying it s unacceptable this balloon is over u.s. territory. they re saying they wanted this trip for blinken to be wide ranging. they wanted to talk about russia, taiwan, a number of issues, trade issues, but this would have reduced what they could talk about. they re saying they want to reschedule. they re calling it a postponement. i asked the conditions required