US pushes back Blinken China trip over spy balloon furor

Secretary of State Antony Blinken scrapped his planned visit to China early next week after a suspected spy balloon launched by Beijing was spotted over the western US, telling reporters Friday that shifting the device out of US airspace was more important.

“The first step is getting the surveillance asset out of our airspace, and that’s what we’re focused on,” Blinken said. “We are going to remain engaged with the [Chinese government] as this ongoing issue is resolved.”

 It could take several days for the balloon to exit the US, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said Friday. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has so far advised against shooting down the high-altitude balloon to prevent debris from causing potential destruction and casualties on the ground.

The postponement, first reported by Bloomberg, was confirmed by senior State Department officials Friday morning after the balloon was located over Montana late Thursday.

“We’ve assessed it would not be conducive or constructive to travel to Beijing right now,” one official told reporters. “And I think, candidly speaking, in this current environment, I think it would have significantly narrowed the agenda that we would have been able to address.”

Blinken was due to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, on Sunday and Monday, in what was to be the first visit to Beijing by a US secretary of state since 2018. Instead, the secretary canceled his trip in a Friday call to Chinese Foreign Affairs Director Wang Yi.

“I made clear that the presence of this surveillance balloon in US airspace is a clear violation of US sovereignty and international law, that it’s an irresponsible act and that the [Chinese government’s] decision to take this action on the eve of my plan visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions that we were prepared to have.”

Earlier Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement of regret and claimed the balloon was a civilian airship used mainly for meteorological research that had “deviated far from its planned course” because of winds.

“The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into U.S. airspace due to force majeure,” said the Foreign Ministry, using a legal term that refers to an unexpected force or event that may allow one party to break a contract.

The State Department and Pentagon were unmoved, disputing China’s description of the balloon.

Blinken would have left Friday evening for Beijing to discuss the already strained US-China relationship, he said.

“What this has done is created the conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip, including ongoing efforts to build a floor under the relationship and to address a broad range of issues that are of concern to the American people,” he said.

If and when that changes, Blinken said he would reschedule his visit.

“When conditions permit, I plan to go to China,” he said. “But the most important thing right now in the moment is to see that this surveillance asset gets out of our airspace.”

Blinken and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman found themselves talking about the balloon Wednesday evening with Xu Xueyuan, charge d’affaires at the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

The Pentagon has said this is not the first time a foreign spy balloon has floated over American airspace, but as another State Department official noted: “This is the first time it’s happened on the eve of a planned secretary of state visit” to China. 

In its January report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena – Pentagon jargon for UFO – the Defense Department noted 163 of 366 reports could be “characterized as balloon or balloon-like entities.” However, it’s unclear from what countries the entities came and not all were spotted over US territory.

As news of the balloon’s trajectory became public Thursday night, the Defense Department said its top generals had advised against shooting down the vessel for fear of incurring civilian casualties on the ground.

Montana is home to one of America’s three nuclear missile silo fields, at Malmstrom Air Force Base near Great Falls — raising alarms among lawmakers who have called for strong action by the Biden administration.

As of noon Friday, the balloon was moving east “over the center of the continental United States” at an altitude of about 60,000 feet, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters.

“President Biden should stop coddling and appeasing the Chinese communists. Bring the balloon down now and exploit its tech package, which could be an intelligence bonanza,” Sen Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) tweeted Friday morning.

“And President Biden and [Defense] Secretary [Lloyd] Austin need to answer if this balloon was detected over Alaskan airspace. If so, why didn’t we bring it down there? If not, why not?” Cotton added. “As usual, the Chinese Communists’ provocations have been met with weakness and hand-wringing.”

“It was a mistake to not shoot down that Chinese spy balloon when it was over a sparsely populated area,” agreed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). “This is not some hot air balloon, it has a large payload of sensors roughly the size of two city buses & the ability to maneuver independently.”

President Biden ignored a reporter’s question about the balloon following remarks on the January jobs report, saying: “I’m heading off to Philadelphia and if you want to ask me a question about the economy — but I’m not going to answer any questions about anything else because you never will cover this.”

The president proceeded to ignore a clearly audible question asking him, “Why did you decide to postpone Secretary Blinken’s trip?”

with Steven Nelson