Blinken postpones China trip as balloon over US fuels tensions

Al Jazeera:

Washington, DC –  US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed a visit to China, calling the presence of an alleged Chinese spy balloon in United States airspace an “unacceptable” violation of the country’s sovereignty.

The balloon incident “undermined” the purpose of the trip, which was set to start on Sunday, Blinken told reporters on Friday afternoon.

“It’s very important to emphasise that the presence of this surveillance balloon over the United States, in our skies, is a clear violation of our sovereignty, a clear violation of international law and clearly unacceptable,” he said.

China has expressed regret for the balloon entering US airspace, describing it as a civilian airship used for meteorological research that “deviated far from its planned course” because of its “limited self-steering capability”.

US officials say it is a “high-altitude surveillance balloon”.

China’s foreign ministry issued a statement on Saturday saying the flight of a Chinese “airship” over the US was a force majeure accident and accused US politicians and media of taking advantage of the situation to discredit Beijing.