SHANGHAI -- China's foreign ministry said on Sunday that it expressed strong dissatisfaction and opposition towards the United States' use of force to attack its airship.

A U.S. military fighter jet shot down the airship, which Washington has described as a suspected Chinese spy balloon, off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, a week after it entered U.S. airspace and triggered a dramatic -- and public -- spying saga that worsened Sino-U.S. relations.

(Reporting by Twinnie Siu, Li Hongwei and Brenda Goh; Editing by Leslie Adler)