ANI
08 Feb 2023, 22:55 GMT+10
Hong Kong, February 8 (ANI): The Chinese spy balloon episode will have far-reaching consequences on US-China bilateral ties. This can be seen in the postponement of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China, The Hong Kong Post reported.
Blinken was earlier supposed to go on an official visit to China from February 5-6.
According to The Hong Kong Post, if China does not work toward repairing the relations, the balloon episode may even endanger the meeting between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping that is being planned in Indonesia this November.
China has more to lose because of the balloon incident because the country has been trying to put a friendlier face before the world as it seeks to expand its role in the international community. At the latest Davos meeting of the World Economic Forum too, China said it would continue its process of liberalization and opening up even further.
The US recently shot down the Chinese balloon which the Chinese Communist Party said is a communications set-up and which the Americans have already declared a spy in the air at 60,000 feet.
As the Washington Post wrote of the affair: "...in arguably one of the most dramatic incidents in years involving the United States and China, it was an unmanned balloon, bobbing along on a meandering stratospheric path across the US mainland, that set the proverbial cat among the pigeons."According to The Hong Kong Post, after tracking the Chinese balloon, which by the way is as big as three buses, in American airspace and a week after the Americans first identified it transited over an Alaskan archipelago, an F-22 Raptor jet fired a missile at the balloon, destroying it.
China described the balloon as a communications assistant and put up a determined face, saying it would give a befitting reply to the Americans.
The Americans say they have no doubt it is a Chinese intelligence asset. After it was shot down, the debris dropped into the ocean. Only if it is retrieved would the real identity of the balloon be known, according to The Hong Kong Post.
According to scientists, balloons are better spies than low-orbit satellites because they can linger over locations and extract sharper pictures and videos of areas surveyed.
According to a Pentagon official, the Chinese balloon could hover longer over collection targets like the ICBM field in Montana that was overflown a few days ago, but they're not stationary, and their signals-collection ability isn't radically different from other systems available to the Chinese.
Meanwhile, China has rejected Washington's request for a telephone call between US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Beijing counterpart Wei Fenghe, The New York Times reported citing Pentagon. The request was made on Saturday soon after a US fighter aircraft shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina. (ANI)
Get a daily dose of New York Statesman news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to New York Statesman.
More InformationIn Warsaw last February, President Joe Biden condemned the lawless Russian invasion of Ukraine: "The idea that over 100,000 forces ...
Farm labor leader Cesar Chavez and members of the United Farm Workers picket outside San Diego area headquarters of Safeway ...
FILE - In this May 12, 2020, file photo, farmworkers harvest beans during the coronavirus outbreak in Homestead, Fla. Many ...
Cesar Chavez with Richard Ybarra during the 1973 Coachella Grape Strike. ...
Dolores Huerta, XX and Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher at XX ...
A U.S. charge that an American crypto-currency leader bribed Chinese officials might bring China into the global campaign against transnational ...
In Warsaw last February, President Joe Biden condemned the lawless Russian invasion of Ukraine: "The idea that over 100,000 forces ...
TOKYO, Japan: Fears over intensifying Chinese military activity directed towards Taiwan could escalate into war have prompted Japan, the United ...
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras: After Honduran President Xiomara Castro severed ties with Taiwan in favor of China to gain more investment and ...
NEW YORK, New York - A Manhattan grand jury has indicted Former U.S. President Donald Trump for his role in ...
MEMPHIS, Tennessee: Tennessee authorities are slowly releasing information about a weekend car crash on a freeway that killed six young ...
JAKARTA, Indonesia: Officials from Indonesia's Aceh province said that more than 180 Rohingya Muslims landed this week by boat, in ...