China reacts to Blinken visit delay due to High-Altitude Balloon Incident
Neither side had even announced that such a trip was planned.
RT-USA NEWS
China has said it respects the Biden administration’s decision to postpone a visit by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to Beijing, after a Chinese high-altitude balloon was spotted in US airspace.
The role of both Chinese and American diplomats is to “properly manage bilateral relations, particularly to manage some unexpected situations in a cool-headed and prudent manner,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
“In fact, neither side has ever announced that there would be a visit,” the ministry pointed out.
As for Washington postponing Blinken’s trip, “it is a matter for the US to make its latest announcement, and we respect that,” the statement said.
The ministry reiterated that the balloon spotted in American airspace on Wednesday, which the US claimed to be a spying device, was actually a Chinese civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological purposes. “This is entirely an unexpected situation caused by force majeure and the facts are very clear,” it stressed.
Blinken said he phoned high-ranking Chinese diplomat Wang Yi to inform him that he would not be traveling to Beijing on Friday. The secretary of state claimed he told Wang that “the presence of this surveillance balloon in US airspace is a clear violation of US sovereignty” and that Beijing’s “decision to take this action on the eve of my planned visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions that we were prepared to have.”
During the call, Wang assured Blinken that China was a responsible country that respects international law, Chinese English-language newspaper the Global Times reported. The Chinese diplomat insisted that the sides maintain their focus and avoid misjudgments when dealing with “unexpected situations,” the paper added.
Blinken’s visit to China was allegedly arranged by US leader Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Indonesia last November, and was due to become the first trip to Beijing by a US secretary of state since 2020.
Late on Friday, the Pentagon said it had detected another object, assessed as “a Chinese surveillance balloon,” flying above Latin America, although it did not appear to be heading towards US territory.
*********
(TLB) published this article from RT-USA NEWS
Header featured image (edited) credit: President Xi/Blinken/YouTube grab
Emphasis added by (TLB) editors
••••
••••
Stay tuned to …
••••
The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)
••••
Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.
••••
Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.
••••
Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Leave a Reply