Balloon saga: China accuses US of damaging Xi-Biden summit push for stable ties
- Some US balloons have flown over Xinjiang and Tibet without Beijing’s permission, foreign ministry says
- China urges US not to take further actions that would harm China’s interests
In addition, he warned that China would retaliate against the US decision to shoot down a Chinese balloon and add six Chinese entities to an export blacklist over alleged links to Beijing’s suspected “spy balloon” programme.
“China is strongly opposed to this and will take countermeasures against relevant US entities that have undermined our sovereignty and security to firmly safeguard our sovereignty and legitimate rights and interests,” Wang said.
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Four objects have been shot down over North America in the past fortnight. Washington identified the first one as a surveillance balloon while China said it was a weather balloon that had accidentally strayed into US airspace.
As a result of the incident, Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelled a trip to China meant to stabilise the relationship.
Wang said the US had turned a deaf ear to China’s explanation and insisted on using force against the civilian airship.
“It obviously overreacted and seriously violated the spirit of international law and international practice.”
“What the US has done [in shooting down the balloon] has seriously impacted and damaged the efforts and process of stabilising Sino-US relations since the Bali meeting,” he said, referring to a summit in November between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Wang urged the US not to take further action that would harm China’s interests, and not to escalate tension.
“China has repeatedly explained to the US side that a Chinese civil airship strayed into US airspace due to force majeure, but the US side said nothing about its balloons illegally flying over China’s airspace without China’s approval, and claimed that China was spreading false information,” Wang said.
He urged the US to offer explanations to China and the international community and stop smearing and attacking China.
“China reserves the right to make further necessary reactions,” he said.
US adds Chinese entities linked to ‘spy balloon’ to export blacklist
Lu Xiang, a specialist on US-China relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said relations between the two countries were unstable to an extent “that even the will of the top leaders of both sides is difficult to be implemented”.
“A consensus reached by the two sides can be disrupted by these kinds of unpredictable accidents,” Lu said.
He said the balloon saga was initially an “accident”, but turned into a “major incident” because of US “hype” and its decision to shoot the airship down.
“We didn’t expect the escalation,” Lu said, adding that uncertainty and instability were becoming a new normal.
However, a meeting between China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, and Blinken might ease the tensions, he said.
Asked on Tuesday about the possibility of a meeting, Wang said no information could be provided.
