After the spy balloon crisis, the United States clarified that Blinken will resume travel to Beijing when China acts as the responsible country

Anthony Blink will resume suspended trip to Beijing when China behaves as a “responsible country”the US government announced on Tuesday.

The US Secretary of State canceled a planned trip to China in early February after the United States shot down a Chinese spy balloon that was flying over its territory.

“I won’t talk about the preconditions for this meeting to take place, but we believe it’s up to China to show that it really wants to be a responsible country,” the State Department spokesman said. net priceat a press conference.

Price assured that Blinken’s suspended trip “should follow” the meeting that the President of the United States, Joe Bidenheld in November with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

“We will listen to what China says privately and publicly to make our decision on when the secretary will travel to Beijing for face-to-face meetings,” he added.

Despite the diplomatic crisis over the issue of Chinese balloons, calls have taken place in recent days between Washington and Beijing because it is “important to keep the lines of communication open”, said the spokesman for American diplomacy.

The United States shot down a Chinese spy balloon off South Carolina on February 4and in the past three days it has shot down three other flying objects on its territory and in Canada, the origin of which it has not yet been able to confirm.

After the incident, Joe Biden’s government accused the Chinese executive of having developed, with the participation of its armed forces, a “program” of spy balloons, which have already flown over more than 40 countries on five continents.

For its part, the Chinese government assured that the first object shot down was a weather balloon which deviated from its trajectory and denounced that at least ten American balloons flew over China last year, which the United States denies. .

The US military has recovered key electronics and sensors believed to be used for intelligence gathering from the downed Chinese spy balloon earlier this month, local media reported on Tuesday. “Teams were able to recover significant remains, including all priority sensors and electronics, as well as large sections of the structure.”said the northern command of the American army in a press release taken up by various media.

Despite the tensions, Washington said on Monday it was “open” to a meeting with senior Chinese officials to discuss the diplomatic crisis. Ned Price explained that at the moment no meeting of Antony Blinken is scheduled with a senior Chinese official, but he said: “We are open and determined to maintain the lines of communication. We can talk on the phone, have meetings in our embassies in Beijing or Washington, hold meetings with officials in third countries or travel to China.”

(With information from EFE)

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