Spy balloon ignites tension between China and US: Diplomatic affair erupts

The detection of a Chinese spy balloon in the skies of the United States has reignited tensions between the great powers, to the point that Washington has decided to postpone the visit to China by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, scheduled for the next few days. The decision comes shortly after Beijing confirms the origin of the airship: the balloon spotted over Montana, where military installations containing nuclear missiles are located, would have been used for meteorological research, according to a statement from the Ministry of Esteri, which regretted the incident.

Before the explanations officially provided by China, the Pentagon had announced that the spy balloon had been flying over American territory for a few days, at an altitude higher than that of regular flights. The balloon would be tasked with collecting information about sensitive locations, but would not pose a physical or military threat. It was decided not to demolish it, after also informing the President of the United States, Joe Biden, of the episode, to avoid risks to the population with falling debris. In addition, in the flyby over Montana, US military experts believed that the balloon could not have collected more sensitive information than that which can be obtained from satellites. Activities of this type have been detected “for years” by US secret services, said Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder, and in particular about Hawaii and the military base in Guam, in the Pacific Ocean, according to what was leaked by an official. American cited by the Washington Post. Before entering western US airspace, the spy balloon would have flown over Canada and, before that, Alaska and the Alaska-administered Aleutian Islands, between the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, but it would not be clear from where was released. Following the takeover, the US State Department summoned the chargé d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Washington to protest. Beijing bided its time, declaring that checks were under way.

“Speculation and clamor will not help resolve the issues before the facts are clarified,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning. In the evening, however, confirmation arrived. “The airship comes from China. It is a civil airship used for research purposes, mainly meteorological”, with limited driving capabilities and which ended up in the airspace of the United States due to westerly winds, reads a note released online by the Itamaraty. China ” regrets the involuntary entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure” and declares that it will continue to communicate with the US and “properly deal with this unexpected situation caused by force majeure”. The postponement of Blinken’s trip also came in from the US media.According to a Biden administration official, Blinken didn’t want to oversell the issue by canceling the visit, but he also doesn’t want the spy balloon issue to dominate meetings with his Chinese counterparts. Blinken’s visit has been talked about for weeks, both in China and in the United States, and was scheduled for the next 5th and 6th of February, according to what leaked Washington in recent weeks, pending confirmation, which never arrived, from Beijing. Blinken’s task was to keep the lines of communication open with Beijing amid the many bilateral tensions, ranging from the Taiwan issue to trade and technology disputes, to the US contrast to Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea after o yesterday between the United States and the Philippines over the access of American soldiers to four bases in the archipelago, which angered Beijing.