US, China speak privately over spy balloon, but military channels shut

WASHINGTON — The US has aired its concerns to Chinese leaders over Beijing’s recent deployment of a spy balloon into American airspace, but the adversaries’ militaries remain in a communications standoff, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday.

“We still have diplomatic relations with China. We still have an embassy there; it’s not like all communications between us and the PRC have shut down,” Kirby told MSNBC, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China. “Obviously, there are certain vehicles like military-to-military vehicles, which are not open to us right now, and that’s unfortunate.”

Those military channels include a deconfliction phone line, meant to offer the two nations a way to talk through potential misunderstandings. However, attempts by the US to use the line have gone unanswered in the latest crisis between the two powers.

While Kirby said Washington has used diplomatic channels to address its concerns “in private setting” with Beijing, Chinese and US military leaders have still not spoken since President Biden on Feb. 4 ordered an F-22 fighter jet to shoot down the surveillance balloon that had spent a week traveling through US airspace.

The silence is not for lack of trying by Washington: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin requested a call with Chinese Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe “immediately after taking action to down the PRC balloon,” but Beijing refused to allow the military officials to speak, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said last week.

Beijing largely halted its military communications with the US after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) defied Biden administration warnings by visiting Taiwan in August.

Despite the snub, the Pentagon will continue to push for dialogue between the militaries to prevent miscommunications that could exacerbate tensions, Ryder said.

“We believe in the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between the United States and the PRC in order to responsibly manage the relationship. Lines between our militaries are particularly important in moments like this,” he said. “Our commitment to open lines of communication will continue.”

Communication is particularly important as the Pentagon continued to track and shoot down as many as three additional unidentified objects in the air over the weekend. It remains unclear whether the objects were balloons or where they came from, but recovery efforts are underway, Kirby said.

“The truth is that we haven’t been able to gain access to the three that were shut down Friday, Saturday and yesterday, in large part because of the weather conditions,” Kirby said. “And the third one yesterday was shot down over Lake Huron, so it’s underwater, so we’re going to do everything we can to recover them.”

Kirby said it’s possible the most recent objects were not the result of malicious intent; research institutions and geolocating companies are also known to use unmanned objects.

“There could be completely benign and totally explainable reasons for why these these objects are flying around up there,” he said. “There are corporate entities that operate these kinds of things, there are academic research institutions that do this sort of thing.”

“We just don’t know, but as soon as we can get the debris and we can find out, we will absolutely share what we can,” he added.

Meanwhile, Navy divers continue to work to recover the remains and payload of the first downed balloon off Myrtle Beach, but fast-changing sea conditions have made the process slow going.

“If I could tell you that, I’d be a very wealthy man,” Kirby told reporters when asked if he knew when the recovery operation would be complete. “I mean, it’s going to — it could take a long time, given see the sea state and weather conditions and the degree to which we have to protect the safety of the divers.”

Beijing continues to deny that the balloon two weeks ago was being used for surveillance, first insisting it was a weather balloon blown off course and later referring to it as a “civilian airship” whose downing was “an abuse of the use of force and overreaction,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Monday.

“We have made it clear several times that the unintended entry of China’s civilian unmanned airship into the US airspace is an entirely unexpected, isolated event caused by force majeure,” Wang said. “The US downing of the airship is an abuse of the use of force and overreaction. We are firmly opposed to it.”

China in recent days has also gone on a PR offensive, most recently by accusing the US of sending more than 10 high-altitude balloons into its airspace in the past year during a press conference Monday

Kirby and fellow NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson denied the reports, adding that any claim that the US government operates surveillance balloons over China is false.

“It is China that has a high-altitude surveillance balloon program for intelligence collection, connected to the People’s Liberation Army, that it has used to violate the sovereignty of the United States and over 40 countries across five continents,” Watson said.