The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Chinese official: U.S. ‘absurd’ on balloon
MUNICH >> China’s top foreign policy official on Saturday mocked America’s response to a recent Chinese spy balloon overflight, calling the U.S. actions “absurd and hysterical” and an effort “to divert attention from its domestic problems.”
The official, Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s senior member for foreign affairs, repeated his government’s claim that the balloon, which flew over several U.S. states this month before President Joe Biden ordered it shot down, was a “civilian” craft blown off course by high winds.
He made the remarks in a speech to the Munich Security Conference, which has been largely focused on Ukraine, as suspense mounted over whether he might meet on the sidelines with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. It would be the first high-level diplomatic exchange between Washington and Beijing since Blinken canceled a planned trip to China over the balloon episode.
The balloon episode has heightened U.s.-china tensions at a time when the relationship was already at one of its lowest points in decades.
U.S. officials say the balloon carried visible equipment that “was clearly for intelligence surveillance,” part of a global surveillance fleet directed by China’s military.
Wang opened his appearance at the conference with remarks about Beijing’s desire for “peaceful coexistence” abroad, while reiterating familiar Chinese admonitions against interference in its internal affairs and its long-standing opposition to Taiwanese independence.
In words that the United States might find encouraging, Wang also said that “nuclear wars must not be fought,” a potential signal to Beijing’s ally, Moscow, that China will not tolerate the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, as Russian officials have at times threatened.
Wang added that nations “must jointly oppose the use of chemical and biological weapons under any circumstances.” U.S. officials have warned that Russia also might contemplate such attacks.
Later Saturday, Blinken appeared with Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister.
The panel moderator asked if anyone onstage had spoken with their Chinese counterpart — a wink to the speculation that Blinken might have a meeting with Wang. Blinken said only that the United States has “made clear” that it would view any provision of military assistance to Russia or sanctions evasion as a “very serious problem” — but that Washington has not yet seen evidence of that.
During a question-andanswer session, Wang turned sharply critical of the United States.
He described the balloon as “an unmanned airship that is civilian in nature” with limited steering ability and said that it had “veered off course” and been blown into U.S. airspace.
“We asked the United States to handle it calmly and professionally based on consultation with the Chinese side,” he said. “Regrettably, the United States disregarded these facts and used advanced fighter jets and downed a balloon with its missiles.
“This is, I would say, absurd and hysterical. This is 100% an abuse of the use of force,” Wang said, adding that Washington had violated an international convention governing airspace.
In the days after shooting down the Chinese balloon, U.S. fighter jets downed three other objects over North America that U.S. officials now say they believe were harmless and probably not from China.
“Across the globe, there are many balloons in the sky from different countries,” Wang said.
“Do you want to down each and every one of them?”
He made no mention of a potential meeting with Blinken or a possible call between Biden and China’s top leader, Xi Jinping. Biden said in remarks to the nation Thursday that he hoped to speak with Xi about the matter.