US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday the United States is not looking for conflict with China despite heightened tensions over last week's downing of a Chinese balloon.

"We're going to compete fully with China, but... we're not looking for conflict – and that's been the case so far," he said in a televised interview with PBS.

Pointing to global ramifications of the balloon incident, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier that Washington was giving data to allies as it assesses recovered debris. "We already shared information with dozens of countries around the world, both from Washington and through our embassies," Blinken said.

China said that the balloon was merely conducting weather research. The Pentagon described it as a high-tech spying operation.

Biden, in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, said that his orders to shoot down the balloon showed that the US would not hesitate to act when needed.

But he also stressed that Washington did not want conflict with Beijing.

The balloon episode led Blinken to postpone a trip to China in which he had hoped to work at easing tensions. (AFP)