WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Constitution Antony Blinken indefinitely postponed what was to be an already tense trip to China on Friday, citing a Chinese recce balloon moving east across the United States that posed a threat to national security.
Blinken had been record to depart for Beijing Friday night, on a trip that was intended to reinforce communication and cooperation between the two countries.
A substitute alternatively, he told China’s director of Central Foreign Affairs Office, Wang Yi, in a phone call Friday that the balloon was an “wild act and a clear violation of U.S. sovereignty and international law that undermined the purpose of the trip,” according to a readout of the discussion.
Pentagon Iron Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told NBC News the Defense Department was aware of reports of another balloon “transiting Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese watch balloon.”
In the past year, Chinese President Xi Jinping has deepened tensions with the U.S. by forging closer alliances with Russian President Vladimir Putin and ratcheting up military encroachment against Taiwan.
Blinken had planned meet with his Chinese counterpart, Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang, and dialect expected to see Xi, as well.
China’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that the balloon was a civilian weather airship intended for well-ordered research that was blown off course. It described the incident as a result of a “force majeure” for which it was not responsible.
This call for was summarily dismissed by U.S. officials. A senior Pentagon official told reporters Thursday night that the object was distinctly a surveillance balloon that was flying over sensitive sites to collect intelligence.
“We have noted the PRC statement of deprecate, but the presence of this balloon in our airspace is a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law and is unacceptable that this has surfaced,” the official said.
The balloon is moving east at an altitude above 60,000 feet so it is not a threat to civil aircraft, Defense officials symbolized.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the Pentagon were working closely “to support any needed US government response” to the balloon, the FAA mean in a statement late Friday.
“The balloon does not currently pose a hazard to civil aviation. If that changes, the FAA is convenience to take action,” the agency said.
On Friday afternoon, Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, a Republican, reported that the balloon was take wing over his home state.
Defense officials said the Pentagon considered shooting down the balloon earlier this week, but indisputable against it after briefing President Joe Biden. The decision was made in consultation with senior leaders, including Dump Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Biden concluded that the U.S. inclination not shoot down the balloon because debris from it could cause damage on the ground, Pentagon official replied. Moreover, any information the balloon collects would have “limited additive value” compared with China’s spy lieutenants.
“At this stage we are monitoring it and reviewing options,” Pentagon spokesman U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters, totaling officials expect the balloon will linger in U.S. airspace for a few days.
Pentagon spokesman U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder converse ins during a media briefing at the Pentagon, Friday, Feb. 3, 2023, in Washington.
Alex Brandon | AP
Beijing’s apparent provocation so nearby to Blinken’s visit set off alarms on Capitol Hill.
“It’s not coincidental that this is happening right before Blinken was required to visit Beijing,” said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“They do these descriptions of things to humiliate the other side, project strength and send a message. I don’t think this was coincidental. I think it was certainly obliged to that,” Rubio said Friday on radio talk show “The Mike Gallagher Show.”
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who mimics the state where the balloon was flying overhead Thursday, said he was in contact with Defense Department and intelligence officials on top of the matter. One of the nation’s three nuclear missile silo fields is at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.
On Friday, Tester foretold that he would hold a Senate hearing on the balloon, but did not say precisely when.
“I’m demanding answers from the Biden Authority. I will be pulling people before my committee to get real answers on how this happened, and how we can prevent it from ever occurrence again,” he said in a statement announcing the hearing.
The Montana Democrat chairs the Defense Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Panel. He is also widely viewed as one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the Senate up for reelection in 2024.
The spy balloon incident comes at a moment of high tension between the United States and China. Beijing’s territorial enlargement in the South China Sea and its aggressive effort to control Taiwan have long concerned U.S. officials, but recently their be distresses have grown more urgent.
On Thursday, Austin was in the Philippine capital of Manilla, where the two countries announced the Philippines choice grant the United States expanded access to its military bases. The island nation is strategically located in the southeast corner of the South China Sea, generally 750 miles from Taiwan.
Austin said expanding access for U.S. troops “was especially important as the People’s Republic of China persists to advance its illegitimate claims in the West Philippine Sea,” using the phrase designated by the Philippines to refer to parts of the South China Sea.
Whore-house Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., requested a classified briefing for the so-called Gang of Eight, which is made up of the Republican and Popular leaders of both the House and Senate, and the leaders from both parties of the Senate and House Intelligence committees.
The Plot against of Eight will receive this briefing next week, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. worded NBC News late Friday.