President Biden declined to take any questions about what U.S. officials call a Chinese surveillance balloon as he discussed the latest jobs report on Friday morning.

"If you want to ask me a question about the economy, but I'm not going to answer any questions about anything else because you never will cover this," Biden said.

Reporters shouted several questions about the balloon as Biden exited the South Court Auditorium but he didn't stop to answer them.

Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder will conduct an on-camera press briefing at noon on Friday as the Biden administration faces questions about what U.S. officials call a Chinese surveillance balloon flying over the U.S.

Ryder said in a statement Thursday that the government was tracking the balloon and that it didn't present a military threat.

"Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years. Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information," Ryder said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is postponing his visit to China after the balloon was tracked soaring across the country.

Blinken will delay his upcoming trip to Beijing, originally scheduled for next week. The official noted that Blinken did not want to blow the situation out of proportion by canceling his visit, but also does not want the balloon to dominate his meetings with Chinese officials.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry is saying the balloon is civilian in nature and used for scientific research, "mainly meteorological."

"The airship is from China," the foreign ministry said. "Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure."

It continued, "The Chinese side will continue communicating with the US side and properly handle this unexpected situation caused by force majeure."

"Force majeure" refers to something that is done beyond the control of the government.

A senior State Department official said the U.S. was still dedicated to keeping lines of communication with China open despite postponing Secretary Antony Blinken's visit.

"The secretary was prepared to depart for Beijing tonight to take on a wide-ranging agenda," the official told reporters. "We have noted the PRC statement of regret, but the presence of this balloon in our airspace is a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law. And it is unacceptable it has occurred."

"After consolations with our interagency partners, as well as with Congress, we have concluded that the conditions are not right at the moment for Secretary Blinken to travel to China," the official added.

The official said Blinken has indicated he will visit China when conditions allow, but did not stipulate what those conditions would have to be.

They also said talks with Beijing would continue across multiple levels of government and that Blinken had been in touch with his Chinese counterpart Friday morning.

"We will maintain open lines of communication with the PRC to address our concerns about this ongoing incident and to responsibly manage the competition between our countries," the official said.

Asked whether the department believed China's explanation of the balloon's purpose and how it happened into American airspace, the official said, "We remain confident in our assessment of the situation."

-ABC News' Shannon Crawford