By Jennifer Jett and Larissa Gao -
NBC News
HONG KONG — China on Monday accused the United States of “indiscriminate use of force” in shooting down a suspected spy balloon over the weekend as the US military searched for debris off the Carolina coast.
The dispute over the globe has further strained relations between the world's two largest economies, prompting Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a planned trip to Beijing.
[Colombia detected an object similar to the Chinese spy balloon: the Pentagon had warned of another in Latin America]
The Biden government claims that China was using the high-altitude balloon for surveillance purposes.
China claims it was a "civilian unmanned aircraft" used for weather research that went off course, and said on Monday it had filed a formal complaint with the US embassy in Beijing.
The United States "obviously overreacted and seriously violated the spirit of international law and international practice," Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng said in remarks to the embassy posted on the Foreign Ministry's website.
He said the US action had "severely affected and damaged" the two countries' efforts to stabilize relations since US President Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Indonesia in November, paving the way. for Blinken's visit to China.
China reserves the right to take further measures, according to Xie.
The revelation last week that the US military was monitoring the globe caused a political uproar, with Republicans criticizing Biden for not shooting it down sooner.
Defense officials, who claimed the balloon had limited intelligence-gathering utility, waited until it was over the Atlantic and shot it down on Saturday afternoon with a single missile from an F-22 Raptor.
[What is a spy balloon and why does the supposed detection of one of Chinese origin in the United States raise alarms?]
A senior Biden Administration official said Sunday that while all possibilities were considered, “the only viable way to bring him down safely was the way we did it.”
The official said that the remains of the balloon would be analyzed as they were lifted from the water.
Issues of the Chinese Daily News newspaper showing images of a suspected Chinese spy balloon, in the Chinatown district of Los Angeles, California, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023. Damian Dovarganes / AP
"Observing the balloon in flight closely has allowed us to better understand this Chinese program and further confirmed that its mission was surveillance," said the official, who discussed intelligence matters on condition of anonymity.
The official said that Chinese surveillance balloons had briefly flown over the continental United States once before during the Biden administration and at least three times while Donald Trump was president, which was discovered only after he left office.
[The Pentagon detects another “spy” balloon from China, this time over Latin America]
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning confirmed that a balloon sighted over Latin America also belonged to China, saying it was on a civilian test flight, had limited steering ability and had entered the airfield inadvertently. airspace of countries in the region.
"China is a responsible country and we always act in accordance with international law," he told a press conference on Monday.
An Air Force plane shoots down the Chinese balloon that had flown over US territory.
Feb 5, 202302:19
Mao did not say which Chinese company or entity the balloon downed in the US belonged to, but said the government would "firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of relevant Chinese companies."
For China, the U.S. reaction to the balloon suggests that Blinken's visit wouldn't have done much anyway, Benjamin Ho, an adjunct professor of the School of Chinese Studies' China program, told NBC News, sister network of Noticias Telemundo. International S. Rajaratnam of Singapore.
“If the Americans downplayed this issue, the Chinese might take it as a sign that the Americans were really sincere about meeting with them and did not want this escalation of bad relations to continue,” he said.
"But in this case that didn't happen, so in other words, we're back to square one," he added.
[A US General Predicts There Will Be “A War With China In 2025” And Asks His Officers To Train Shooting]
Jude Blanchette, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that while the balloon incident was a huge misstep on Beijing's part, the postponement of Blinken's trip was "a bit of a knee jerk reaction" that it could demonstrate the White House's concern with domestic politics.
It demonstrates the deep sensitivity of the Administration before the optics of these first maneuvers to restore relations”, he affirmed.
Zhu Feng, director of the Institute of International Studies at Nanjing University, said China will remain a contentious issue as the 2024 US election approaches.
"American politicians are trying to magnify the Chinese threat, using the Chinese factor to intensify Americans' sense of crisis and promote internal cohesion," he said.
However, he said he expected communication between the two countries to resume, noting that Biden and Xi have spoken on the phone multiple times in the past two years despite bilateral tensions.
“China does not want a new cold war between the two parties, let alone a complete disengagement.
What China wants most is to develop its own economy and the lives of its people,” she explained.
