Joe Biden is expected to address the shooting down of suspected Chinese surveillance balloons that entered US airspace in his most extensive public remarks yet, three people familiar with the matter said.

Biden will deliver his remarks early today but the exact timing of his address has not been settled yet, NBC reported.

Mr Biden is scheduled to take a physical exam today which is expected to last several hours.

The president, it is understood, will use his address to explain how his administration will tackle the issue of aerial balloons and other objects spotted in the future.

His speech is expected to answer swirling questions over the shooting down of aerial objects by the US military as federal investigators salvage and analyse the wreckage.

Asked about TikTok and the aftermath of the spy balloon, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the US is “acutely aware” of “challenges” that China presents to the US, pointing to incidents of “espionage” and the “misuse of private or confidential information”.

The US is “determined to do everything we can to counter it,” stressing the importance of maintaining “open lines of communication” between Washington and Beijing.

He also echoed other US officials who are adamant that the balloon incident has not fractured the relationship between the two nations.

“America’s relationship today is where it has been some time,” he told reporters in a briefing on Wednesday, adding that the US relationship with China is “the most complex and consequential we have on the face of the earth.”

“The same could be true of any number of countries around the world in their own bilateral relationship with China,” he said. “We are clear eyed to these areas of competition, and it is competition that we think dominates this relationship.”

The administration has sought to establish “guardrails” to prevent that competition from veering into conflict, he said.

“As two leading powers in the world, there are challenges the world simply cannot address unless the United States and China cooperate together,” he said, pointing to efforts to address the climate crisis as a “prime example” of that necessary cooperation

Britain must “wake up” to the challenges China presents to global security, a former head of MI6 has said, as questions have been raised over the UK’s ability to respond to threats in the wake of China’s suspected surveillance balloon entering the US mainland.

Alex Younger, who led Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service from 2014 to 2020, said that “trust is plummeting to zero” between Washington and Beijing.

China has reportedly flown dozens of military “spy” balloons in Taiwanese airspace over many years, said a new report citing top officials, with the latest incursion alleged to have occurred just a few weeks ago.

US officials confirmed on 14 February that the object above Lake Huron – the third spotted above North American airspace in as many days – was taken down with a second shot when it appeared above the lake on 12 February. The first shot landed in the waters straddling the state of Michigan and the Ontario province of Canada.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying mocked America’s scrutiny into the suspected surveillance balloon, accusing the nation of ignoring the threats posed by the train derailment in Ohio that has sparked widespread contamination fears, with Hua Chunying comparing it to the disaster at Chernobyl.

“Apparently some in the US take a wandering civilian balloon as a big threat while the explosive train derailment and toxic chemical leak Not. #OhioChernobyl,” she wrote on Twitter.

The Independent is covering the Ohio disaster here:

Emerging details about the decisions made among US and Chinese officials as a balloon made its way across America reveal some confusion and critical misreadings among the world powers that boiled over into partisan battles and media frenzy.

US officials reportedly told The New York Timesthat a self-destruct function did not operate when the Chinese surveillance balloon entered North American airspace over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, though it is unclear whether the operators refused to detonate the device or if it failed.

Officials also told the newspaper that they believe that China then may have been reluctant to detonate the balloon once it was over the mainland, fearing political fallout if the debris had caused any damage below.

It also is unclear whether operators misread wind currents that carried the balloon in and out of American airspace or allowed it to drift to see what it could collect, The Times reported, echoing similar findings from intelligence officials who spoke with The Washington Post.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and deputy secretary Wendy Sherman reportedly issued a formal notice to a senior Chinese diplomat at about 6.30 pm ET on 1 February, telling him that his government must do something about the balloon.

More than 24 hours later, Chinese foreign ministry officials in Beijing spoke privately to diplomats in the US Embassy to tell them the balloon was a harmless civilian machine that had gone off course, according to the newspaper.

Early on 4 February, Chinese officials told their US counterparts that operators were trying to speed it out of the country, but by then the Biden administration was planning to shoot it out of the sky once it reached the coast of South Carolina.

Four objects were shot down by US Air Force fighter jets within eight days across North America.

After an F-22 struck down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon on 4 February, US military discovered three other objects in North American airspace within as many days.

What are they, why are we suddenly seeing them, and why did the US shoot them down?

Here’s what we know:

They could be “sky trash” or “benign” weather balloons or any number of other objects, and may or may not have come from China.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on 13 February that the US has not yet seen “any indication” that three objects shot down US fighter jets were part of China’s spy balloon program or any other intelligence-collecting efforts.

While the White House and members of Congress stay mum on what they’ve heard in classified briefings, speculation and conspiracy theories are thriving.

The US military, meanwhile, has widened its range of radar data as it monitors North American airspace for objects that might have otherwise been filtered out, with officials comparing their expanded radar search to search filters a prospective car buyer would use to broaden the parameters to find what they’re looking for.

That means objects that have been in US airspace for some time could now literally be on the nation’s radar, revealing information that otherwise would have been filtered out as clutter in the past.

Asked about TikTok and the aftermath of the spy balloon, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the US is “acutely aware” of “challenges” that China presents to the US, pointing to incidents of “espionage” and the “misuse of private or confidential information”.

The US is “determined to do everything we can to counter it,” stressing the importance of maintaining “open lines of communication” between Washington and Beijing.

He also echoed other US officials who are adamant that the balloon incident has not fractured the relationship between the two nations.

“America’s relationship today is where it has been some time,” he told reporters in a briefing on Wednesday, adding that the US relationship with China is “the most complex and consequential we have on the face of the earth.”

“The same could be true of any number of countries around the world in their own bilateral relationship with China,” he said. “We are clear eyed to these areas of competition, and it is competition that we think dominates this relationship.”

The administration has sought to establish “guardrails” to prevent that competition from veering into conflict, he said.

“As two leading powers in the world, there are challenges the world simply cannot address unless the United States and China cooperate together,” he said, pointing to efforts to address the climate crisis as a “prime example” of that necessary cooperation.