US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned China not to repeat its “irresponsible act” of sending a spy balloon into US airspace, as he held rare talks late on Saturday with Chinese Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Wang Yi (王毅).
The highly anticipated meeting of the two senior officials came on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The US has been in a state of alarm since a large white balloon from China was spotted over several restricted secret nuclear weapons sites, before being shot down just off the east coast on Feb. 4. The incident led Blinken to abruptly call off a rare trip to China.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Beijing denies it uses spy balloons and says the craft was for weather research.
Subsequently, it accused Washington of sending its own espionage balloons over Chinese territory, which the US has denied.
During their encounter on Saturday, Blinken “directly spoke to the unacceptable violation of US sovereignty and international law by [China’s] high-altitude surveillance balloon in US territorial airspace, underscoring that this irresponsible act must never again occur,” US Department of State spokesman Ned Price said.
“The secretary made clear the United States will not stand for any violation of our sovereignty,” he added.
He also warned Wang “about the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia or assistance with systemic sanctions evasion,” Price said.
Blinken was “very direct and candid” during the talks, which lasted about an hour, a senior state department official said, adding that he was also “quite blunt” when they spoke about Russia.
In turn, Wang told Blinken that their countries’ relations had been damaged by how Washington reacted to the balloon.
Wang “made clear China’s solemn position on the so-called airship incident,” and “urged the US side to change course, acknowledge and repair the damage that its excessive use of force caused to China-US relations,” Xinhua news agency reported.
Speaking earlier on Saturday at the gathering of world leaders in Munich, Germany, Wang had condemned the US’ reaction to the balloon as “hysterical and absurd.”
In uncharacteristically strong remarks against Washington, Wang said US President Joe Biden’s administration had a “misguided” perception of Beijing.
He accused the US of trying to “smear” China, while implementing policies that ran counter to its paradigms, such as free trade.
“There are many balloons from many countries in the sky. Do you want to down ... every one of them?” Wang said. “We urge the United States not to do such preposterous things simply to divert attention from its own domestic problems.”
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