The House of Representatives unanimously approved a resolution on Thursday condemning the Chinese Communist Party's use of a spy balloon over the continental U.S. that new intel shows was capable of collecting communication signals.

The resolution labeled the situation "a brazen violation of United States sovereignty," and cleared the chamber in an uncommon bipartisan 419-0 vote.

The Pentagon last week announced that it was tracking a high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon floating over the U.S., prompting widespread media coverage. On Saturday, the U.S. shot down the object over water off the coast of South Carolina.

"An event like this, Mr. Speaker, must not happen again. And it cannot go unanswered," Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and sponsor of the measure, said on the House floor Thursday.

"They only understand one thing and that is force, and that's projecting power, and we need to project power and force and strength against the Chinese Communist Party," he added. "They must understand that we do desire peace, but infringing upon our sovereignty leads us down a dangerous path. Our adversaries must believe that any future incursion into American airspace by a spy balloon or any other vehicle will be met with decisive force.

The situation prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone his trip to Beijing.

The approved resolution calls on the Biden administration to continue keeping Congress apprised of developments through "comprehensive briefings on this incident" that include a timeline of when the balloon was first detected to when it was shot down, an assessment of surveillance data the People's Republic of China was potentially able to collect or send, a detailed account of measures taken to mitigate the intelligence collection threat from the balloon, a description of options to mitigate the situation and an account of diplomatic communications between Washington and Beijing on the matter.

As far as the surveillance capabilities of the balloon, an NBC News report indicates that the balloon's equipment "was clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment onboard weather balloons."

Beijing has insisted the object was a civilian weather balloon that went off course and mistakenly entered U.S. airspace, but State Department officials told NBC News the balloon had multiple antennas in an array that was "likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications."

American officials do not know exactly what kinds of communications the balloon's antennas were trying to collect and have not determined what sites the balloon was targeting, U.S. officials told the New York Times.

In recent years, at least four balloons have been spotted over Hawaii, Florida, Texas, and Guam — in addition to the one tracked last week. Three of the four instances took place during the Trump administration but were only recently identified as Chinese surveillance airships.

China U.S. House of Representatives Congress