China reacts to postponement of Blinken visit — RT World News
China has said it respects the Biden administration’s decision to postpone Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s visit to Beijing after a high-altitude Chinese balloon was spotted in US airspace.
The role of Chinese and American diplomats is to “manage bilateral relations well, in particular to manage certain unexpected situations with composure and caution”, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
“In fact, neither party ever announced that there would be a visit,” underlined the ministry.
As for Washington postponing Blinken’s trip, “It is up to the United States to make its final announcement, and we respect that,” the statement said.
The ministry reiterated that the balloon spotted in US airspace on Wednesday, which the United States claimed was a spy device, was actually a Chinese civilian aircraft used for research purposes, primarily for meteorological purposes. “This is a completely unexpected situation caused by force majeure and the facts are very clear,” he underlined.
Blinken said he called senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi to inform him that he would not be traveling to Beijing on Friday, just hours before his scheduled departure. The Secretary of State said that he told Wang that “the presence of this surveillance balloon in American airspace is a clear violation of American sovereignty” and that Beijing “The decision to take this step on the eve of my scheduled visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions we were prepared to have.”
During the call, Wang assured Blinken that China is a responsible country that abides by international law, Chinese English-language newspaper Global Times reported. The Chinese diplomat insisted that the parties remain focused and avoid misjudgments when dealing with “unexpected situations” the added paper.
Blinken’s visit to China was reportedly hosted by US leader Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the G20 summit in Indonesia last November, and was to become the first trip to Beijing by a US secretary of state since 2020. .
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