National security adviser says U.S. wants to 'exploit what we recover' from Chinese spy balloon

US. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Monday said officials plan on salvaging the suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down Saturday over the Atlantic Ocean to "exploit what we recover and learn even more."

Sullivan said at a U.S. Global Leadership Coalition summit panel that the U.S. has already learned quite a bit about the balloon while monitoring its travel across the country, The Hill reported.

Studying the balloon's remains will be beneficial "so that we can then exploit what we recover and learn even more than we have learned," he said.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby made similar comments at a briefing Monday.

"Our efforts to surveil this balloon and what we’re going to learn from the recovery will prove to be valuable," he said. "The time that we had to study this balloon over the course of a few days last week, we believe, was important and will give us a lot more clarity not only on the capabilities that these balloons have but what China is trying to do with them."

He said the U.S. is still recovering the balloon.

Other reports Monday stated that the FBI is going to study the balloon's remains.

China has condemned the U.S. decision to shoot down the balloon.

The state-run outlet China Daily published a story early Tuesday morning local time stating that the "US obviously overreacted, and seriously violated the spirit of international law and international practice."