Antony Blinken delays his trip to China due to balloon over US

• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China has been postponed.
• Visit was due to take place on Sunday, but “conditions are not right” for visit now.
• Spokesman says presence of Chinese spy balloon in US airspace is a “clear violation of our sovereignty”.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed his trip to China because the purported Chinese spy balloon‘s presence in American airspace is a “unacceptable” breach of the country’s sovereignty.

A senior Department of State official said on Friday that “conditions are not right” for the visit that was set to start on Sunday due to the “irresponsible” balloon flight.

China has expressed regret for the balloon entering US airspace, describing it as a civilian airship used for meteorological research that “deviated far from its planned course” because of its “limited self-steering capability”. But the US administration said the aircraft was a “high-altitude surveillance balloon”.

“We have noted the PRC [People’s Republic of China] statement of regret, but the presence of this balloon in our airspace is a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law, and it is unacceptable that this has occurred,” the Department of State official told reporters on the condition of anonymity.

The official emphasized that channels of communication between Washington and Beijing are still open as they work to “responsibly manage” the growing rivalry between the two nations.

“Our clear assessment was that under these current conditions, it wouldn’t be constructive to visit Beijing at this time, but I’ll also reiterate that this is a postponement and the secretary [Blinken] plans to travel at the earliest appropriate opportunity when conditions allow,” the official said.

Relations between Beijing and Washington have deteriorated recently due to a number of causes of contention, such as trade disputes, Taiwan’s legal status, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and the US’s ongoing campaign against China’s expanding influence in the Indo-Pacific.

China has also received warnings from the US not to support Russia in Ukraine.

Blinken’s trip, which has now been postponed, was intended to ease some of those tensions. It would have been the first trip to China by a US secretary of state since Mike Pompeo, who served as the country’s top diplomat at the time, visited Beijing in 2018 and met with his colleague but not President Xi Jinping.

Late in 2022, US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi met outside the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.

Officials from China and the US have emphasized that they do not seek conflict and have issued warnings against turning the rivalry into a new Cold War.

Reputed media reporter claimed the balloon controversy would have overshadowed Blinken’s trip to China while reporting from the White House.

“There are already a lot of big issues to be discussed between these two nations… This would be overarching over all of them,” she said.

On Thursday, the balloon was initially spotted over Montana in the north of the United States. However, the Pentagon did not specify which state it was over when it stated on Friday that it was “above the center of the continental United States.”

“We currently assess that the balloon does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground at this time, and we’ll continue to monitor and review options,” Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder told reporters.

The balloon is flying far above commercial air traffic, he continued.

Ryder also rejected the Chinese denial that the balloon was a research balloon used for commercial purposes. We are aware that it is a surveillance balloon, as he stated.

In response to the event, Canada, which shares a border with Montana and has tense relations with China, announced on Thursday that it had summoned the ambassador.

“We will continue to vigorously express our position to Chinese officials through multiple channels,” the Canadian foreign ministry told reputed media outlet in an email.

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