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‘Prejudice and ignorance’: China goes on offensive, turning up criticism of US downing of balloon
- Top Chinese diplomat tells Munich Security Conference that Washington’s handling of incident showed weakness
- Beijing’s rhetoric an attempt to sway some countries to its view, analyst says
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China’s top diplomat dismissed the US decision to shoot down a Chinese balloon as “absurd and hysterical”, ramping up the rhetoric against Washington as Beijing seeks to defend its international reputation.
“It does not show America is strong. On the contrary, it shows the opposite,” Wang Yi told the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday.
“Across the globe, there are many balloons in the sky, from different countries. Do you want to shoot down each and every one of them?”
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Wary of its image overseas, China has stepped up its criticism of the United States over the past few days, particularly over the shooting down of a high-altitude balloon that Washington says was used for spying but that Beijing maintains was a stray weather research vessel.
In his address to the conference, Wang repeated China’s line that it told the United States that the unmanned airship was civilian in nature, with “limited self-steering capability and veered off course to enter the United States due to a westerly influence”.
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He said shooting it down was “100 per cent abuse of force” and a violation of international practice.
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