We must say that things are paning out very interestingly between US and China over the tensions due to its spy balloon, which was spotted inside the US territory and later shot down due to the threat it possessed. The fascinating part here is that China have said that the spy balloon belongs to them, but the US President Biden claims that there is no evidence that the balloon came from China. On the other hand, the US wants an apology from China because of the illegal intrusion inside its airspace, but the Chinese side is not giving them any.
There was a Munich Security Conference held very recently where the US and Chinese Secretary of State met along the sidelines. It is interesting to note that the meeting did not go very well from the statement that was given by the US Secretary of State, Blinken. Antony Blinken said that he does not want to repeat what his Chinese counterpart said and also added that it would be inappropriate as well. This can be taken both ways where he does not want to share the secret things exchanged in the meeting or even that there were some harsh things spoken at the meeting.
Blinken added, “I can tell you, no, there was no apology,” ending the speculation that the Chinese side were apologetic about their mistake. He added that “We really focused on the balloon incident,”. He went on to even say that the balloon incident was a deliberate act from the Chinese side which is surely enough to trigger them.
On the topic of this balloon hovering around military sites, he added, “It attempted to surveil very sensitive military sites. In some cases, it loitered or returned to them as it progressed east”. “So there’s no doubt in our minds at all that, A: this was a surveillance balloon. And B: it was attempting to engage in active surveillance.” He touched on the topic of this being the start of a Cold War saying that “We have to make sure that the competition that we’re clearly engaged in, does not veer into conflict, into a new Cold War.” Blinken said. “It’s not in our interest. I won’t speak to theirs, but it’s not in ours.”
