Balloons, UFOs Bring Arctic Chill to US-China Relations

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (VOICE) Relations between the United States and China have gone from somewhat frosty to frozen in recent days as reconnaissance balloons drifted over the American mainland.

An interim first step taken towards normalizing relations after the storm of the Trump-induced trade war and Covid-19 pandemic was a meeting between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping in Bali. It led to the first face-to-face summit. US Secretary of State Anthony Brinken visited Beijing for the first time and held extensive talks, including with the Chinese President.

Blinken called off the visit — postponed, U.S. officials claim, — after the U.S. declared the balloon an “unacceptable” violation of U.S. sovereignty and international law, and U.S. A week after it was first sighted over Alaska after shooting down a balloon off the coast of Carolina.

“As we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to defend our nation.” He also made it clear in his remarks on Saturday.

And Biden continued to openly provoke Xi. “Call me the world leader to replace Xi Jinping. Name me! Name me!

These remarks were not in the copy of his prepared speech shared by the White House. In, there are those tendencies – he repeated the phrase in a sit-down interview with a local reporter.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said China was slandered in the US president’s speech. “It is not responsible country practice to defame a country or limit a country’s legitimate development rights on the grounds of competition, even at the cost of disrupting global industry and supply chains. But,” the spokesperson said.

The ministry also urged the United States to work with China to “promote bilateral relations to return to a healthy and stable development track.”

But Beijing will make the first move. In fact, it refused a request from US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for a telephone conversation with the Chinese side.

Beijing has cut military-to-military ties with Washington amid tensions over former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.

The US and China are not talking.

However, that can change if both sides vent their anger.

Its advantage over the low-Earth satellites that nations normally use to spy on each other is not immediately apparent, but its very presence over their heads has made many Americans so angry that they are ready to shoot it down. Asked for and saw daily delays. As further proof that the Biden administration is incapable of standing up to the Chinese.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a resolution unanimously condemning “the Chinese Communist Party’s use of high-altitude surveillance balloons over U.S. territory as a brazen violation of U.S. sovereignty.”

The United States has since said that spy balloons came from a concerted effort by China to spy on other countries using such devices, and have been sighted in more than 40 countries on five continents. increase.

Few Americans have given their names, but India this week addressed representatives from 40 embassies in Washington in a special ceremony conducted by Wendy Sherman, Deputy Secretary of State and U.S. diplomat for China. I was invited to a briefing.

Did China also fly reconnaissance balloons to India? Supposedly, India hasn’t said a word about it yet.

When the US first officially responded to the balloon, Beijing may have already shown its willingness with a rare gesture of remorse. China expressed regret, stating that the balloon “airship” is “essentially for civilian use and is used for meteorological and other scientific research. Due to the effects of westerly winds and reduced controllability, the airship will not operate as planned. deviated from the course.”

China’s leaders look forward to Mr Blinken’s visit as an opportunity to put aside the crappy past, first over the trade war sparked by former US President Donald Trump, and then over the Covid-19 pandemic that began in China and nearly shut down the world. was 2 years.

They may have to wait for the US to get over the balloon.

OTTAWA: Defense Minister Anita Anand tweeted: – Altitude objects detected over Alaska. The object did not fly into Canadian airspace.

“Canadian and U.S. aircraft scrambled and U.S. F-22s fired at objects. I have reconfirmed.”