Blinken postpones China trip over 'unacceptable' Chinese spy balloon
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[February 04, 2023]
By Humeyra Pamuk, Idrees Ali and Michael Martina
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a
visit to China that had been expected to start on Friday after a
suspected Chinese spy balloon was tracked flying across the United
States in what Washington called a "clear violation" of U.S.
sovereignty.
Military leaders considered shooting down the high-altitude surveillance
balloon on Wednesday but eventually recommended against this to
President Joe Biden because of the safety risk from debris, officials
said.
The Pentagon said on Friday that another Chinese balloon was observed
over Latin America, without saying where exactly.
"We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now
assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon," Pentagon spokesman
Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden was briefed on
Tuesday about the balloon flight over the United States and there was an
administration "consensus that it was not appropriate to travel to the
People's Republic of China at this time."
China expressed regret that an "airship" used for civilian
meteorological and other scientific purposes had strayed into U.S.
airspace.
Jean-Pierre said the U.S. administration was aware of China's statement
"but the presence of this balloon in our airspace, it is a clear
violation of our sovereignty as well as international law. It is
unacceptable this occurred."
On Friday, Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, said the balloon had changed
course and was floating eastward at about 60,000 feet (18,300 meters)
above the central United States and demonstrating a capability to
maneuver. He said it would likely be over the country for a few more
days.
Commercial forecaster AccuWeather said the balloon would potentially
leave the United States and move over the Atlantic on Saturday evening.
Mike Rounds, a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
told Fox News it would be good to recover the balloon "one way or
another" to see "if it was designed to actually collect data or if it
was designed to test our response capabilities."
The Pentagon's disclosure about the balloon's maneuverability directly
challenges China's assertion about it being blown off course.
At a news conference with South Korea's visiting foreign minister on
Friday, Blinken said he had told Wang Yi, director of China's Central
Commission for Foreign Affairs, that the incident on the eve of his trip
was an "irresponsible act" by China, but Washington remained committed
to engagement and he would visit when conditions allowed.
Blinken said he would not put a date on when he might go to China and
the focus was on resolving the current incident. "The first step is ...
getting the surveillance asset out of our air space," he said, adding
that Washington would maintain open lines of communication with China.
The Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs
Committee, Michael McCaul, said the balloon should never have been
allowed in U.S. airspace and could have been shot down over water.
"I am calling on the Biden administration to quickly take steps to
remove the Chinese spy balloon from U.S. airspace," he said in a
statement.
China's foreign ministry said in statements on Saturday that the flight
of the "airship" over the United States was a force majeure accident,
accusing U.S. politicians and media of taking advantage of the situation
to discredit China.
It said Wang had told Blinken during their phone call that both parties
needed to communicate in a timely manner and avoid any misjudgments.
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A balloon flies in the sky over
Billings, Montana, U.S. February 1, 2023 in this picture obtained
from social media. Chase Doak/via REUTERS
LOST OPPORTUNITY?
A White House official said the administration had briefed staff of
the so-called Gang of 8, which brings together Republican and
Democratic leaders from the Senate and House, on Thursday afternoon.
The official said such balloon surveillance activity had "been
observed over the past several years, including in the prior
administration – we have kept Congress briefed on this issue."
The postponing of Blinken's trip, which had been agreed to in
November by Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, is a blow to
those who saw it as an overdue opportunity to stabilize an
increasingly fractious relationship. The last visit by a U.S.
secretary of state was in 2017.
China is keen for a stable U.S. relationship so it can focus on its
economy, battered by the now-abandoned zero-COVID policy and
neglected by foreign investors alarmed by what they see as a return
of state intervention in the market.
In recent months Chinese leader Xi has met with world leaders,
seeking to re-establish ties and settle disagreements.
Daniel Russel, the top U.S. diplomat for Asia under former President
Barack Obama, said he did not see a strategic rationale for
canceling the trip and stressed the importance of maintaining
high-level engagement with China.
"In as much as the U.S. has much bigger fish to fry with the Chinese
than a surveillance balloon, the Biden team may be inclined to pick
up where they left off after a decent interval," he said. Sino-U.S.
relations have soured significantly in recent years, particularly
following then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in
August, which prompted dramatic Chinese military drills near the
self-ruled island.
LIMITED INTELLIGENCE VALUE
The Pentagon's Ryder told reporters on Thursday the balloon was at
an altitude well above commercial air traffic and did not present a
military or physical threat to people on the ground. One U.S.
official added it was assessed to have "limited additive value from
an intelligence collection perspective."
Another official said on Thursday the flight path would carry the
balloon over a number of sensitive sites, but did not give details.
Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana is home to 150 intercontinental
ballistic missile silos.
Ryder declined on Friday to say where precisely the balloon was, but
as he spoke, the National Weather Service in Kansas City said on
Twitter it had received multiple reports across northwestern
Missouri of a large balloon.
China has often complained about surveillance by the United States,
including its deployment of ships or planes near Chinese military
exercises.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Idrees Ali, Humeyra Pamuk, Phil
Stewart, Michael Martina, David Brunnstrom, David Shepardson and
Simon Lewis in Washington; additional reporting by Tony Munroe, Ryan
Woo and Yew Lun Tian in Beijing, Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru, Greg
Torode in Hong Kong, Lion Schellerer in Singapore and Brenda Goh in
Shanghai; Editing by Don Durfee, Jonathan Oatis, Marguerita Choy,
Cynthia Osterman and William Mallard)
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