China described the decision by the United States to shoot down an alleged Chinese “spy” balloon as an “absurd and hysterical reaction” on Saturday and said through Wang Yi, China’s foreign policy chief, that it was something “unacceptable“.
Wang, director of the Foreign Affairs Commission Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC), reiterated that the balloon shot down by the United States after the object flew over part of the United States territory had no crew, was a civilian aircraft and had no possibility of being directed at a distance.
The Chinese “spy” balloon was located in late January in US airspace and was shot down over Atlantic waters on February 4. For days, it had been flying over different areas of the country, such as the state of Montana (northwest), where one of the three existing nuclear missile silo fields in the United States is located.
Wang said in a debate at the Security Conference in Munich (South Germany) that “all over the world there are countless balloons, to shoot them all down is impossible” and considered that the decision to fire the bomb “does not demonstrate the strength of the United States, quite the contrary”.
He also called on the US authorities to “remove” from these “absurd actions” and asked the US government for “sincerity”, as well as recognizing the negative consequences that this type of action can have on bilateral relations.
He commented that the decision to shoot down the Chinese balloon was a “strategic misjudgment” and reiterated that Beijing is interested in maintaining bilateral relations with the United States based on “mutual respect and peaceful coexistence”.
Beijing has insisted in recent days that the balloon entered US airspace by mistakenly deviating from its trajectory, saying it was used for meteorological purposes, not espionage.
In addition to the “spy” balloon, the United States has shot down three other flying objects in its territory and in Canada in the last week, the origin of which is under investigation by the US and Canadian authorities.
However, the discovery of the “spy balloons” has reignited tensions and led to the suspension of a trip to China that Secretary of State Antony Blinken was planning to make.
Source: EFE
Source: Clarin
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