The head of US diplomacy informed his Chinese counterpart that his visit to China had been postponed following the detection of a suspected Chinese spy balloon in US airspace, condemning it as an “irresponsible act”.
“The Secretary of State [Antony Blinken] took good note of China’s justifications, but stated that this was an irresponsible act and a clear violation of US sovereignty that undermines the purpose of the trip,” a US State Department spokesman said.
In the phone call Antony Blinken had with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the US official also explained that because of this incident, “it would not be appropriate to travel to Beijing at this time”, but insisted that the The United States wants to “keep the channels of communication open” with Beijing and to be able to visit the country as soon as “circumstances permit”.
Hours earlier, a US official had announced the postponement of Blinken’s visit to China – initially scheduled for Sunday and Monday – following the identification of a Chinese balloon flying over US airspace.
Beijing said it “regretted” such an “involuntary” intrusion, given that it was a “civil aircraft, used for research purposes, mainly meteorological” and that it would have been far from the established route due to the high winds and because it limited driving skills, the spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Source: DN
