China Is Not Happy the US Shot Down Its Balloon.
China on Monday said it was accusing China and the United States of indiscriminate use of force to shoot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon. The country claimed it “seriously affected and damaged the efforts of both parties as well as improvement toward stabilization of Sino-U.S. relationships.”
The U.S. shot down the balloon off the Carolina coast following its passage through sensitive military installations throughout North America. China insists that the flyover was an accident caused by an aircraft that was a civilian.
Vice-French Minister Xie Feng has said that he filed an official complaint to the U.S. Embassy on Sunday regarding the “U.S. attack on the Chinese civilian airship that was not manned using military forces.”
“However it appears that the United States turned a deaf to the concerns of the United States and demanded an indiscriminate use violence against the civil airship which was about to depart from the United States airspace, obviously was overreacting and in serious violation of the principle of international law and procedure,” Xie said.
The appearance of the balloon over the U.S. dealt a severe blow to already fragile U.S.-Chinese relations, which have been on a downward spiral for several decades. The incident led Secretary of State Antony Blinken to abruptly cancel the high-risk Beijing trip to ease tensions.
FOREX-Dollar stays steady following strong US jobs report, Lira hits new lows
Xie reiterated China’s claim on the fact that it’s the result of a Chinese civilian unmanned airship which was blown in U.S. airspace by mistake and describing it as “an accident due to the force of nature.”
China will “resolutely defend legal rights and the interests of Chinese businesses, and will firmly protect China’s dignity and interests, while reserving the ability to respond in the future,” he said.
China on Monday accused the United States of indiscriminate use of force when the American military shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon Saturday https://t.co/7q1FGWRva7
— TIME (@TIME) February 6, 2023
U.S. President Joe Biden issued the order to shoot down the balloon following a recommendation from the president that the most suitable time for the shootdown would be in the surface water U.S. officials said. Military officials determined that taking down the balloon at an altitude of 60,000 feet (18,000 meters) is a risky danger to those who are on the ground.
“What is the U.S. has done has severely harmed and harmed the efforts of both parties, as well as improvement toward stabilizing Sino-U.S. relations following that Bali summit,” Xie said, speaking of a recent meeting with Vice President Joe Biden as well as the Chinese colleague, Xi Jinping, in Indonesia which many believed would boost the momentum in the improvement of relations, which have fallen to their lowest over the past few years.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning gave no additional details on Monday. She reiterated China’s assertion that the balloon was a civilian balloon designed to conduct meteorological research. It was unable to navigate and was able to enter U.S. airspace by accidentally departing from its route.
She also did not mention what further measures China was planning to take as a response to Washington’s approach to this issue and Blinken’s cancellation of the trip that would have made him the top U.S. official to visit since the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic.
“We have declared that this is an accidental, isolated incident caused by force majeure; however, it appears that the U.S. still hyped up the incident for a reason and even employed force to strike,” Mao said at an annual briefing. “This is a reprehensible and reckless act.”
Balloons believed to be Chinese were spotted flying across Latin America to Japan. Japanese deputy chief cabinet secretary Yoshihiko Isozaki told reporters Monday that an object flying similar to the one that was shot off by the U.S. had been spotted at least twice in northern Japan from 2020.
