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Balloon downing deepens fault lines in China-US relations: analysts
- Both sides will need to tamp down their rhetoric to avoid further unnecessary fallout, Chinese observer says
- The episode highlights ‘the essential fragility and fraught nature of Sino-US relations’
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Washington’s decision to shoot down a Chinese balloon on the weekend will deepen the gulf of suspicion between the two powers, making it much tougher to improve the worst bilateral ties between them for decades, according to analysts.
The US sent an F-22 fighter jet to bring down the balloon with an Aim-9X Sidewinder missile on Saturday after the Pentagon claimed the unmanned airship was surveilling strategic sites in the country.
Zhu Feng, a China-US relations expert and international affairs professor at Nanjing University, said the Pentagon admitted that the balloon did not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground and the decision to shoot it down would only strengthen Americans’ perception of China as a threat.
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“The US has ceaselessly exaggerated and propagated the ‘China threat’ theory … It is an overreaction that does no good to China-US ties,” Zhu said.
“Both sides need to progressively lessen adversarial rhetoric and action, because it is unnecessary for China and the US to be [further] affected by the finger-pointing [in] this incident.”
01:51
China’s top diplomat urges US to ‘avoid misjudgment’ as Blinken trip postponed over balloon issue
China’s top diplomat urges US to ‘avoid misjudgment’ as Blinken trip postponed over balloon issue
The downing of the balloon ended an episode that prompted US President Joe Biden’s administration to postpone a visit to Beijing by his top diplomat.
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