There’s no smoke without fire: Dissensions between China and the US
Joe Biden and Xi Jinping
Beijing declared on Saturday that the controversy surrounding a Chinese observation balloon in the United States is being used as a pretext for “damage reputation” of China. The Pentagon announced on Friday that it had detected a large balloon over the United States and assured that it had no doubts about its Chinese origin and its use for espionage purposes. The Chinese authorities, who referred to an “unintentional” intrusion, expressed their “regrets.” In the wake of this incident, which caused a stir in the United States, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, postponed a rare planned visit to Beijing, intended to ease tensions with the Chinese rival. “Some American politicians and media are using the incident as a pretext to attack and defame China,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
“China has always strictly respected international law (…) and has never violated a sovereign country’s territory or airspace,” the ministry adds, referring to the flight of a Chinese observation balloon over the United States. Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing, originally scheduled for Sunday and Monday, is “postponed” and will be rescheduled when “the conditions are met,” according to a senior official of the Secretary of State, on condition of anonymity. “In reality, neither China nor the United States has (officially) announced a visit,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs commented on Saturday. “The publication of information (related to this visit) is only the decision of the United States,” the ministry added. On Friday, the balloon remained in the sky, above the “center of the continental United States,” General Ryder told reporters, but he said that the public would not be constantly updated on the sphere’s whereabouts. “What we’re not going to do is get into an hour-by-hour location for the balloon,” he added. “The public has the ability to look up in the sky and see where the balloon is.”
By Ovidiu Stanica
