Washington, 4 February 2023 (GNP): The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, suspended his much-awaited visit to Beijing after a reported Chinese spy balloon was discovered by the Pentagon in the US airspace.
Beijing expressed its grievances over the suspension of this visit and tried to calm the situation by saying that it was a civilian airship that was blown away by winds to the US airspace.
However, the Biden administration remained unmoved by this explanation of Beijing.
Meanwhile, the Republicans criticized the US government for compromising the national and territorial interests of the country by not taking a hard stance on the reported Chinese spy balloon. Amid this lack of criticism, the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, suspended this visit to China, which was viewed with great expectations for relieving tightened relations between the two superpowers. This two-day visit of the Secretary of State was going to start on 5 February.
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However, White House officials do not rule out the visit of the Secretary of State to China in the future when the situation is normal and optimal.
After the 2018 tradeoff between China and US, it was the first high diplomatic visit to Beijing by any US official.
The Pentagon said that the balloon is now flying over western Montana State, but due to safety measures, it did not decide to shoot down the balloon.
Beijing initially did not accept the ownership of this balloon but, later on, confirmed that it was a civilian airship intended for meteorological research having no military or surveillance proposes behind it. And that veered off its track with winds into the US airspace.
A spokesperson for the Chinese foreign office told the media that Beijing will continue its communication with Washington to properly handle this unexpected situation, a result of force majeure.