shortly before, the president had assured the press that he was going to “deal with” of the globe. Since his sighting, Biden was evaluating together with the military leadership what to do with the artifact.
The Federal Aviation Administration had decided hours before to restrict airspace in an area of more than 32,000 square kilometers near Myrtle Beach “to support the Department of Defense in a national security effort.” It had also suspended flights at the local airport and at the Charleston airport.situated in the same state, and the Wilmingtonlocated in North Carolina, whose traffic was resumed after the demolition.
An operation is currently underway to recover the debris from the device and verify it, according to a US official. The National Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had reported this Saturday that the balloon would leave the US territory via the east coast.
For his part, heThe Chinese Foreign Ministry argued that this chaotic situation is due to a “force majeure” event. “This situation has been completely unexpected, but the facts are very clear,” the ministry’s spokesman said in a statement, according to the Europa Press news agency. Beijing claimed that “never violated the airspace of any sovereign country” and accused US politicians and media of “exaggerate” the incident to “attack and discredit” the Asian giant.
The Pentagon announced Thursday that it was monitoring a suspected Chinese spy balloon that was seen over the airspace of the United States, a discovery that comes at a time of high tension in the relations of both superpowers and that led to the postponement of the visit to Beijing by the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
The Asian country reiterated today that “it is a civil aircraft used for research purposes, mainly meteorological” that it deviated from its original course “affected by the winds” and for having “limited self-steering capacity”. He also claimed that bilateral relations should be “properly managed”, keeping “a cool head and prudence in unexpected situations.” “Maintaining contact and communication at all levels is an important common understanding reached by the Chinese and US presidents at their Bali meeting,” Beijing said, recalling the meeting between Xi Jinping and Biden at the G20 summit in Indonesia.
Anthony Blinken
Photo: AP
Yesterday, when confirming the suspension of Blinken’s trip originally scheduled for tomorrow and Monday, the State Department indicated that “the presence of this balloon is a clear violation of our sovereignty, as well as international law, and it is unacceptable that this has happened.” According to US mediathe device flew over the Aleutian Islands, in the north of the Pacific Ocean, and Canada before entering United States airspace several days ago.
It then passed through the airspace of Montana (northwest of the country), whereand sensitive airbases and strategic nuclear missiles in underground silosbut the Pentagon does not believe that this device constitutes a great threat because “has limited additive value from the perspective of intelligence (data) collection”. The US Department of Defense later warned that detected the passage of a second Chinese spy balloon over Latin Americaalthough without specifying in which area.
These complaints come at a time of high tension in the relations of both superpowersespecially due to the situation in Taiwan, an island that the Asian giant considers part of its territory. The confrontation increased after the visit made to the island last August by the then president of the US House of RepresentativesDemocrat Nancy Pelosi, which later led to military maneuvers led by China.
Joe Biden Xi Jinping.jpg
Thursday, andCIA director William Burns said President Xi would have ordered the military to be “prepared” to invade Taiwan in 2027. Beijing’s response was not long in coming: “Washington must stop interfering in the Taiwan question and stop creating new factors that could lead to an increase in tension in the Strait,” the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at her press conference.
The trade war, the White House’s denunciations of human rights violations in China, Beijing’s support for North Korea and the geopolitical position on the invasion of Ukraine, are other thorny issues in the relationship between the two main economies of the world.
Source: Ambito
