Chinese Spy Balloon Incident “Undermines Purpose of Trip”

In what marks a significant, ostensibly overdue escalation in tensions between Washington and Beijing, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed a planned trip to China in response to a Chinese spy balloon the Biden administration allowed to pass uncontested over Hawaii, the Aleutian Archipelago, and the entirety of the continental United States—to include several sensitive military and nuclear installations.

At a 03 February press conference, Blinken—who was to have departed for Beijing later that day but instead informed top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi that he was postponing—set forth that the high-altitude surveillance balloon had “created the conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip.”

Blinken told reporters: “In my call today with Director Wang Yi, I made clear that the presence of this surveillance balloon in U.S. airspace is a clear violation of U.S. sovereignty and international law, that it’s an irresponsible act, and that the [People’s Republic of China’s] decision to take this action on the eve of my planned visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions that we were prepared to have.”

Blinken further stated that the U.S. is confident the balloon is indeed a Chinese surveillance balloon, and disclosed the Pentagon had reported another Chinese spy balloon currently transiting Latin America.

Speaking to the subject of the second balloon, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder stated: “We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon.”

Ryder was unclear about the balloon’s exact position over Latin America; however, a U.S. official stated subject balloon did not appear to be heading toward the United States.

China’s foreign ministry claimed the balloon spotted over the U.S. was a “civilian airship” used mainly for weather research that had deviated from its planned course. The statement, made by a ministry spokesman, was the first admission that the balloon had originated in China.

“It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry prevaricated. “Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into U.S. airspace due to force majeure.”

The statement continued: “The Chinese side will continue communicating with the U.S. side and properly handle this unexpected situation caused by force majeure.”

A French term denoting a superior of irresistible power, force majeure is used in the legal context to refer to natural and unavoidable catastrophes that interrupt the expected course of events.

A senior U.S. State Department official asserted that the US has acknowledged China’s “statement of regret” but that the presence of the balloon in U.S. airspace occasioned “a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law, and it is unacceptable that this has occurred.” The unnamed official added: “In this current environment, I think it would have significantly narrowed the agenda that we would have been able to address.”

Yet another U.S. military official categorized the balloon incident as serious insomuch as it evinced “audacity” on the part of the Chinese communist government. The official suggested that while existing satellites are capable of gathering similar information, the timing of the spy balloon’s passage over the United States—immediately preceding Blinken’s planned trip—and the fact it overflew sensitive U.S. military and civilian installations underscore the event’s seriousness.

“Once we detected the balloon, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Blinken equivocated. “We communicated with the PRC government directly through multiple channels about this issue. Members of my team consulted with our partners in other agencies and in Congress. We also engaged our close allies and partners to inform them of the presence of the surveillance balloon in our airspace.”

According to parties familiar with the matter, the decision to postpone Blinken’s trip was predicated upon conversations between Blinken, Joe Biden, and other national security officials.

In the weeks following Joe Biden’s November 2022 meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the White House had viewed U.S.-Chinese relations as improving. Blinken’s trip was to have been the culmination of more robust talks between Washington and Beijing in the months following the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.

During the lead-up to Blinken’s trip, U.S. and Chinese officials posited that Biden and Xi could speak again at some point in the following months.

Notwithstanding widespread belief among Americans that he is overly soft on China, Biden initially refused to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon, rationalizing that doing so posed a threat to people on the ground. Conversely, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte—who was informed by neither the Pentagon nor the Biden White House that the spy balloon was over his state—declared unequivocally that he’d have seen the interloping balloon shot down forthright.

During a television interview, Governor Gianforte remarked: “Earlier in the week they [the Biden administration] were contemplating taking it [the Chinese spy balloon] out of the sky. For whatever reason, they didn’t do that. Now, clearly, this went to the President’s desk, he was given options; for whatever reason, he chose not to act, and unfortunately, the result of that is that Americans are endangered, and our enemies are emboldened.” Gianforte added: “Eastern Montana is probably one of the best places to take it down. We could have contained it, we could have found out what the mission truly was by recovering whatever electronics are on this balloon. If the Americans had flown a spy balloon over China, do you think it would still be in the air? Of course not. We should have taken action, but unfortunately, we’ve emboldened our enemy today.”

On Saturday, 04 February 2023, a single air-to-air missile fired from a U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor brought down the Chinese spy balloon off the Atlantic coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Crowds gathered in neighborhoods, hotel parking lots, and along the beach—most cheering—as the balloon was finally, if not tardily, shot from American skies.

State Department officials state Blinken still intends to travel to China “at the earliest opportunity when conditions allow.” The State Department did not elaborate on what conditions, exactly, Blinken’s future travels may be predicted.

FMI: www.state.gov