Spy balloon: China refuses an official appeal, Biden defends American sovereignty

The Chinese government on Saturday refused the American proposal for a telephone call on the "spy balloon" which flew over the United States.

It was to connect Lloyd Austin, the head of the United States Department of Defense, the Pentagon, and his counterpart Wei Fenghe, shortly after the United States Air Force, the American air force, shot down the 'object.

"Our commitment to maintain open channels of communication will continue," however, promised General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon's spokesman, on Tuesday, after this rejection confirming the deterioration of relations between the two first world powers.

“On Saturday, February 4, just after taking action to bring down the Chinese Communist Party balloon, the

Department of Defense submitted a request for a secure call between Minister Austin and the Chinese Secretary of Defense , Wei Fenghe,” General Ryder detailed.

“Communications between our armies are especially important at times like these.

Alas, the Chinese Communist Party declined our request,” he added.

Read alsoChinese spy balloon shot down: “The United States felt almost humiliated”

The American army shot down on Saturday, off the coast of South Carolina, this Chinese balloon considered by the Pentagon as a spy balloon intended to collect sensitive information.

Beijing, the Chinese capital, maintains that it was a civilian device, mainly intended to collect meteorological data.

The Chinese government said Monday that the United States has "seriously affected and damaged" relations between the two countries.

The same day, the United States claimed to have recovered the first debris from the Chinese balloon, including part of the canvas.

According to the Pentagon, the balloon itself was about 60 meters high and carried a kind of basket weighing more than a ton which remains to be recovered.

“We will act to protect our country”

President Joe Biden made the decision to shoot down the alleged Chinese spy balloon last Wednesday, but the US military had advised him to wait until the craft was over the Atlantic, in US territorial waters.

The head of state has been harshly criticized by the Republican opposition, which accuses him of having waited, a sign according to her of the "weakness" of his administration vis-à-vis Beijing.

US officials, however, assured that this provided "a tremendous opportunity to better understand and study" the craft, whose crossing of US territory captivated the country for several days.

The balloon incident forced the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, to postpone in extremis a long-awaited trip to the Chinese capital at the start of the week, intended precisely to appease relations between the two great strategic rivals.

Despite this, the administration of Joe Biden assures that he wants to maintain the dialogue with Beijing and that the visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs will be rescheduled as soon as the “conditions are met”.

Read alsoChinese balloon, police violence, abortion, Ukraine… What to remember from Joe Biden's speech

Joe Biden said Tuesday that the United States will not be intimidated by China, while saying not to seek conflict with Beijing.

“Make no mistake about it: as we clearly showed last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country and we have done it”, launched the American president in his annual address on “ State of the Union" before both houses of parliament, Congress.

In his remarks, the president wanted to be firm and underlined that the United States is “in the strongest position in decades to compete with China or anyone else in the world”.

"Winning the competition with China should unite us all," he said, however, saying he was determined "to work with China where it can serve American interests and benefit the whole world". expressed to

Xi Jinping that we seek competition, not conflict.

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