China admitted on Friday that the hot air balloon that flew over the United States at a high altitude belongs to it. And after the accusations of espionage suggested from the Pentagon, he asked that "there is no speculation." Anyway, "sorry" for the misunderstanding. But the apology did not prevent Secretary of State Antony Blinken from suspending the visit he had planned this coming weekend to Beijing, just to try to temper the atmosphere between the two powers.
"We have taken note of the PRC's statement of repentance, 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 happened," said a senior US diplomatic official
The hot air balloon that appeared in the sky of the western United States "is from China," Beijing had said. It is "a civil airship used for research purposes, mainly meteorological," the Asian giant's Foreign Ministry also clarified in an evening statement.
The finding, which the US air surveillance systems made at the beginning of the week and reported on Thursday, came to illustrate the mutual mistrust between the two powers and to strain an increasingly delicate bilateral relationship.
The Pentagon decided not to shoot down the balloon - even though it had flown over sensitive spots - out of concern that it would cause harm to people on the ground.
China said in its statement that the aircraft has limited "self-steering" capabilities and "deviated greatly from its planned course" because of the winds. "We regret the unintentional entry of the aircraft into US airspace due to force majeure," added the leaders of the Asian giant.
One of the places the balloon was sighted was the sky over Montana, which is home to one of the country's three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
Gen. Patrick Ryder noted Thursday that similar balloon activity has been seen in recent years and that the government has always taken steps to ensure sensitive information is not stolen.
The news of the discovery of the Chinese balloon in question came when the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, was expected to lead the first visit by a senior US dignitary to Beijing in five years (in 2018 his predecessor Mike Pompeo went there ).
Blinken was going to meet in Beijing with his counterpart, Qin Gang, to continue the talks that leaders Joe Biden and Xi Jinping held in November within the G-20 summit in Bali; a meeting that resulted in the agreement to "keep the lines of communication open" at a time of growing confrontation due to persistent Chinese pressure on Taiwan, the bilateral trade war and Beijing's ongoing attacks on human rights.
The Secretary of State chose to "postpone" his trip. Through officials from his department, he said he did not want to exaggerate the situation with a final cancellation of his visit but also did not want the balloon incident to dominate his meetings with the Chinese leadership.
