US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken on Friday postponed a rare planned visit to Beijing that was meant to ease tensions with the Chinese rival, due to the presence of an alleged Chinese spy balloon in US airspace. United.
The Chinese authorities may have expressed their “regrets” for this “involuntary” intrusion, according to them, Washington deemed the affront “unacceptable” and decided in extremis to cancel the trip of the American Secretary of State, which was scheduled for Sunday and Monday.
Mr. Blinken expressed it directly to the director of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, taking note of the “regrets” expressed by China, but denouncing “an irresponsible act and a clear violation of the sovereignty of the United States which undermines the purpose of the trip.
“The priority now is to get this spy device out of our airspace,” he told a news conference.
At the same time, the head of American diplomacy tried to calm things down by assuring that his visit would be rescheduled when “conditions allow it”, insisting on the need to keep “the lines of communication open” with Beijing. .
“Imagine for a moment what the reaction would have been in China” if they were concerned, he noted.
The Pentagon announced on Thursday that it had detected a large aerostat over the United States, and assured that it had no doubts about its Chinese origin and its use for espionage purposes.
Beijing, which had initially called not to “raise the pin” on this affair, admitted on Friday that it was indeed a device from China.
But “it is a civilian aircraft, used for research purposes, mainly meteorological”, assured a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release.
Pushed by the winds, this balloon “deviated from its trajectory”, he added, expressing his country’s “regrets” for this “involuntary” violation of American airspace.
nuclear missiles
“I can tell you that the balloon is heading east and is currently over the middle of the United States” at some 18,000 meters altitude, and that it should remain in American territory for “a few more days,” Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said Friday during a press briefing.
He reiterated that the balloon, “manoeuvrable”, sailed above commercial air traffic and posed “no military or physical threat to people on the ground”.
The spokesperson, however, refused to explicitly detail whether the movements of the machine were remote-controlled.
According to US media, the balloon flew over the Aleutian Islands in the northern Pacific Ocean, then passed through Canadian airspace, before entering the United States about two days ago.
He notably flew over the state of Montana, which is home to nuclear missile silos, where fighter jets approached him, a senior Pentagon official said Thursday on condition of anonymity.
It was decided not to shoot it down, due to the risks posed by possible debris for people on the ground, he added, while judging its ability to collect information “limited”.
“Down that balloon!” »
This is not the first time that the US military has seen such an intrusion, but this aircraft has remained longer than others in US airspace.
The incident sparked strong reactions within the political class in the United States.
“This violation of American sovereignty […] shows that the recent signs of openness” on the part of the Chinese authorities “do not reflect a real change in policy”, commented in particular the Republican and Democratic leaders of a parliamentary committee on China, Mike Gallagher and Raja Krishnamoorthi.
“Down that balloon!” urged former Republican President Donald Trump on Truth Social, as did many Republican opposition politicians.
Among the many contentious issues with the United States are Taiwan, which China claims as an integral part of its territory, and Beijing’s activities in the South China Sea.