I’d like to stress that before it becomes clear what happened, any deliberate speculation or hyping up would not help handling of the matter,” ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular news conference, in response to CNN’s query. “ are trying to understand the circumstances and verify the details of the situation. Tensions have flared in recent years over the self-governing island of Taiwan, China’s human rights record and its military activities in the South China Sea, among a host of other issues.Ĭhina’s Foreign Ministry said Friday it was aware of reports of the incident but warned against “deliberate speculation.” “It puts Chinese officials on the backfoot heading into the meetings.”īiden has declared China “America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge” and competition between the two global superpowers is intense. “It sets the stage for extraordinarily tense meeting between Blinken and Qin Gang,” Lipsky said, referring to the Chinese foreign minister. Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, said it is clear the US wanted to make China aware that it knew about the balloon before Blinken landed in China. US national security officials have constantly warned about Chinese espionage efforts and the balloon’s presence in the US comes at a sensitive moment with Secretary of State Antony Blinken expected to travel to Beijing in the coming days, a significant trip meant to follow up on President Joe Biden’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last year. The US government has engaged with the Chinese government both through the Chinese embassy in Washington and the US diplomatic mission in China, according to the official. “It does not create significant value added over and above what the PRC is likely able to collect through things like satellites in low Earth orbit,” the senior defense official said. Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Imagesīlinken under pressure to push China on role in lethal fentanyl trade when he visits Beijing Blinken kicked off a Middle East trip in Cairo focussed on urging calm amid an escalation of violence between Israel and the Palestinians. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference with Egypt's Foreign Minister (not pictured) in Cairo, on January 30, 2023. The US believes Chinese spy satellites in low Earth orbit are capable of offering similar or better intelligence, limiting the value of whatever Beijing can glean from the high-altitude balloon, which is the size of three buses, according to another defense official. The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure,” the spokesperson said in a statement. Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. “It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes. On Friday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the balloon entered US airspace accidentally. We are also tracking what abilities it could have in gaining insights, and continue to monitor the balloon as it was over the continental United States.” The US, the official said, is “taking steps nevertheless to protect against foreign intelligence collection of sensitive information. The balloon is assessed to have “limited additive value” from an intelligence collection perspective, the official added. While the balloon’s current flight path carries it over “a number of sensitive sites,” the official said it does not present a significant intelligence gathering risk. “Instances of this activity have been observed over the past several years, including prior to this administration.” “We are confident that this high-altitude surveillance balloon belongs to the ,” the senior defense official said.
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