Off the coast of South Carolina, the United States recovers the debris of a suspected spy balloon from China. The parts are now evaluated. Meanwhile, Beijing summons an American chargé d’affaires.
China’s State Department has summoned the chargé d’affaires at the American embassy in Beijing to protest the US military’s shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon. Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng said at Sunday’s meeting that the balloon’s entry was just an “accident” caused by “force majeure,” the foreign ministry said. “The facts are clear and cannot be twisted.”
Despite this, the US had “played deaf” and insisted on “abusing force against a civilian airship that was about to leave US airspace”. It was an “obvious overreaction” and violated “the spirit of international law and international norms,” the Deputy Foreign Minister was quoted as saying.
The US has thus “seriously impaired and damaged” the efforts and progress on both sides to stabilize relations since the meeting between China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden in November, Xie Feng said according to this information.
The Chinese government will closely monitor further developments and reserves the right to react as necessary. In a vague hint that the balloon may have been owned by civilians, the statement said the government wanted to protect “the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.”
United States evaluate debris
Meanwhile, the debris is being salvaged in the United States. The Federal Police FBI is involved in the evaluation, US media reported unanimously. According to the Pentagon, the debris lay about 11 kilometers off the coast of South Carolina in relatively shallow water.
US fighter jets shot down the balloon over the Atlantic on Saturday after the flying object had flown over the United States for several days. The US accused China of spying on the balloon. Beijing protested against the “overreaction” and rejected the allegations.
The USA hopes that the evaluation will provide information about the technical capabilities of the balloon. US President Joe Biden says he ordered the balloon to be shot down “as soon as possible”. However, a risk for the people on the ground should be ruled out, so it was decided to only take the flying object out of the sky over the sea.
Incident causes concern in Germany
Several US Republicans sharply criticized Biden’s actions. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina wrote on Twitter: “Now that this embarrassing episode is over we need answers from the Biden administration about the decision-making process. Communist China has been allowed to violate American sovereignty unhindered for days. We must wait for future provocations and abuses China’s better prepared.” On February 15, the Senate is to be briefed in a secret session.
The incident also caused concern in Germany. “The federal government takes Chinese espionage and the current reports very seriously and is coordinating with its most important partners,” said security circles when asked by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich said in the ARD program “Report from Berlin”: “That worries us a lot – including me personally, because I think we have to be careful that another major international conflict does not arise here.”
feared escalation of the conflict
The SPD foreign policy expert Michael Roth rated the balloon and the heated debate about it in the USA as a “foretaste of the escalating conflict between China and the USA in the coming years”. The launch of the balloon was correct, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag told the editorial network Germany. However, Biden was under massive pressure from the Republicans, who wanted to discredit him as weak in foreign policy. At the same time, China’s President Xi Jinping has been pursuing an expansive foreign policy for years, the SPD politician explained. “That makes managing relationships more and more difficult.”
The CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen expressed the expectation that the balloon dispute would only briefly affect the relationship between China and the USA. “In my view, it is a Chinese glitch that nevertheless required an American response,” Röttgen told RND. “However, I assume that this will not allow either side to be diverted from their planned course any longer than necessary. And this consists of not being completely speechless in the pronounced power struggle between the two sides.”
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
