US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was preparing to travel to Beijing, where he is said to have even scheduled a meeting with President Xi Jinping, but has to cancel a balloon plan at the last minute and threatens to jeopardize relations between the US and the US to deteriorate further. and China. According to the Pentagon, the balloon detected in US airspace was “gathering information”. But according to Beijing, it is a civilian aircraft, used for scientific (mainly meteorological) purposes, that has gone off course and regrets that it “accidentally” ended up in the US.
The trip, which was supposed to start tomorrow, has not been canceled but postponed until “the conditions are right”, a US official told journalists, claiming that the spy balloon controversy would “significantly limit the agenda of the Secretary of State”. The theme threatened to dominate the entire trip, which aims to maintain points of contact between Washington and Beijing and prevent the deterioration of already tense relations due to the trade war or Chinese pressure on Taiwan, among other things.
The Chinese spy balloon entered US airspace “days ago”, the Pentagon said Thursday, after it also flew over the Canadian one. Otava said it was eyeing a “potential second incident” but declined to give further details. In the US, it was spotted in the state of Montana – home to Malmstrom Air Force Base, home to one of the three US nuclear missile silos.
F-22 fighters were mobilized and the Department of Defense, at the request of President Joe Biden, investigated the possibility of shooting down the device, which flies at high altitudes (well above commercial aircraft) and poses no military or physical threat to those being on the ground. That could change with falling debris, hence the The administration decided not to shoot down the balloon.
In addition, a US official said the spy balloon had “limited value from an intelligence gathering point of view” for a country that also has satellites. According to a 2019 Air Force report, the advantage of a balloon over a satellite—besides being easier and cheaper to deploy—is that they can analyze large areas of terrain more closely and spend more time on a specific target .
Following the Pentagon’s announcement that it was tracking the Chinese balloon, Beijing said it would investigate and asked it not to “take guesses” or “exaggerate” the situation until all the facts were known. “We do not intend to violate the territory or airspace of any sovereign country”said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.
Later, even before Blinken’s decision to postpone the trip to China, the first by a US secretary of state since 2008, Beijing admitted that the plane was his. “The balloon comes from China. It is a civil balloon used for scientific research, mainly meteorological purposes,” a statement read. “The Chinese side regrets that the balloon accidentally entered US airspace due to force majeure”, explaining that due to the wind and the device’s limited maneuverability, “it deviated from its planned trajectory”. Beijing also indicated that it is in contact with Washington to deal with the “unexpected situation”.
But the US deemed the case “unacceptable” and a “clear violation of US sovereignty”. The Pentagon said this Friday that the balloon must remain in US airspace for several days, under surveillance. In the face of attacks from Republicans accusing President Biden of being “weak” in relation to Beijing, Blinken postponed the trip.
Plans for the two-day visit of the US Secretary of State, according to Financial times including a meeting with the Chinese president, began designing in November. That month, Xi Jinping and Biden met on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Bali after agreeing to try to calm tensions between the two countries.
Relations between Beijing and Washington, degraded for years by the trade war or human rights issues between the Uighurs and Hong Kong, deteriorated further after the visit of then Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, In August. Beijing regards the island as a rebel province whose control does not preclude it from being recaptured by force, as raids into the island’s airspace have increased and more ships have been sent to the Taiwan Strait, fearing a possible blockade or even an invasion. The US is supporting the island militarily and even announced on Thursday the strengthening of its military presence in the region, with access to four more bases (out of a total of nine) in the Philippines.
Source: DN
