US diplomacy push after Chinese balloon incident comes under bipartisan fire at House panel

Withering criticism aimed at senior envoy for East Asia and Pacific over back-to-back trips to Beijing by Antony Blinken and Janet Yellen

Republican congresswoman worried ‘State Department not being forthcoming with information about its engagement with the PRC’

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds a press conference at the US Embassy in Beijing during his visit in June. Photo: Reuters

Published: 3:15am, 19 Jul 2023Updated: 6:22am, 20 Jul 2023

Corrected [5:58am, 20 Jul, 2023]

[5:58am, 20 Jul, 2023]
An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the chairwoman of the Asia-Pacific subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee as Judy Chu. The chairwoman is Young Kim.

A senior State Department official took heavy fire from Republicans and Democrats in a US congressional hearing on Tuesday for Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s attempts to move beyond the Chinese balloon incident that put bilateral engagements on hold for months earlier this year.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink also faced withering criticism from Republicans for the back-to-back trips by President Joe Biden’s top officials to Beijing, including Blinken’s in June, which Republican congresswoman Young Kim of California called “chasing Chinese Communist Party officials for fruitless engagements”.

“I am worried about the growing trend of the State Department not being forthcoming with information about its engagement with the PRC, or actions taken by the PRC that directly affect United States national security such as the spy balloon and the spy base in Cuba,” added Kim, who chairs the Asia-Pacific subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

In June, Blinken said of the balloon incident in an interview with MSNBC: “We did what we needed to do to protect our interests” and “that chapter should be closed”.

US officials have said the balloon formed part of a global surveillance programme by Beijing. The Chinese government has said the balloon was for civilian use and accidentally entered US airspace when it was blown off course. On the subject of Cuba, Kim was referring to a Biden administration assessment that China has been operating a spy base in the island nation since at least 2019.

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