The visit prepared by the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to Beijing, which was intended to contain the growing tensions between the two countries, generated great expectations, but it was canceled due to the incident and now has no rescheduling date.
That visit would have been the first by a US secretary of state to Chiba since October 2018 and would have come as the two superpowers are trying to prevent tensions from escalating into open conflict.
The issues of dispute between the two powers are numerous, from Taiwan to human rights, through Chinese dominance in the field of semiconductors.
For the Americans, it was about finding common ground with the Chinese and making sure that bilateral competition “doesn’t turn into a conflict.”
Attempts
The Biden administration has highlighted the possibilities for cooperation with Beijing, for example in the field of climate, and said it was satisfied with the limited Chinese support for Russia in the war in Ukraine.
But the “spy” balloon incident forced Blinken to cancel his trip, demonstrating how fraught with difficulties the road to rapprochement with Beijing is, under pressure from the Republican opposition, which has denounced the “weakness” of the Democratic government.
“China expresses its strong discontent and protests against the use of force by the United States in attacking a civilian unmanned aircraft,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that it will reserve “the right to provide further responses. ”.
The plane had been flying over the United States for several days, raising tensions between Washington and Beijing, before it was struck down over the Atlantic by a missile fired from an F-22 plane on Saturday. President Joe Biden congratulated the pilots who participated in the operation.
“The deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President Biden and his national security team will always put the security of the American people first and will respond effectively to the PRC’s unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” said the Secretary of Defense. , Lloyd Austin.
Accusation
The stratospheric balloon “was used by the People’s Republic of China in an attempt to monitor strategic sites” of the United States, he added.
US officials first said Thursday that they were tracking a huge Chinese “surveillance balloon” in the sky over the United States. China immediately claimed to have asked Washington “to properly handle the situation in a calm, professional and moderate manner.”
However, according to yesterday’s statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the United States “insisted on the use of force” towards an “unmanned civil aircraft”, which the Asian giant described as a “clearly disproportionate” reaction.
“China will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the affected companies and reserves the right to provide further responses if necessary,” it added.
Beijing accused Washington of committing a “serious violation of international practices.”
In videos broadcast on television networks, the balloon fell vertically on Saturday after the missile hit. At the time it was shot down, it was about 18 kilometers above sea level and about 11 kilometers from the coast, according to Pentagon officials.
“After careful analysis, US military commanders determined that shooting down the balloon while above the ground posed an unreasonable risk to people due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload,” the defense minister said.
Source: Ambito
