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China to 'Safeguard Interests' 02/07 06:12
BEIJING (AP) -- China said Tuesday it will "resolutely safeguard its
legitimate rights and interests" over the shooting down of a suspected Chinese
spy balloon by the United States, as relations between the two countries
deteriorate further.
The balloon prompted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a
highly-anticipated visit to Beijing this week that had offered slight hopes for
an improvement in relations.
China claims it was a civilian balloon used for meteorological research but
has refused to say to which government department or company it belongs.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Tuesday reiterated that the
"unmanned airship" posed no threat and entered U.S. airspace accidentally.
Mao again criticized the U.S. for overreacting rather than adopting a "calm,
professional" manner, and for using force in bringing the balloon down Saturday
in the Atlantic Ocean just off the U.S. coast.
Asked if China wanted the debris returned, she only reasserted that the
balloon "belongs to China."
"The balloon does not belong to the U.S. The Chinese government will
continue to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests," Mao said
at a daily briefing without giving further details.
Beijing's attitude has hardened considerably following a surprisingly mild
initial response on Friday, in which it described the balloon's presence as an
accident and expressed "regret" for the balloon having entered the U.S.
Subsequent statements have grown firmer, in the same tone used to confront
the U.S. over issues from Taiwan to trade, technology restrictions and China's
claim to the South China Sea. China says it lodged a formal complaint with the
U.S. Embassy in Beijing, accusing Washington of having "obviously overreacted
and seriously violated the spirit of international law and international
practice."
Recent developments have laid bare the extremely fragile nature of what many
had hoped could be a manageable economic, political and military rivalry.
U.S.-China tensions have stirred deep concern in Washington and among many
of its allies. They worry that outright conflict could have a strong negative
impact on the global economy, especially since Russia's invasion of Ukraine
last year, on which China has largely sided with Moscow.
Balloons either suspected of or confirmed to be Chinese have been spotted
over countries from Japan to Costa Rica. Taiwanese media have reported that
mysterious white balloons had been spotted over the island at least three times
in the past two years.
That's especially concerning because China claims Taiwan as its own
territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary and routinely
sends warships and military aircraft into the island's air defense
identification zone and across the middle line of the Taiwan Strait dividing
the sides.
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense has never explicitly linked the
balloons to China. However, the recent furor over the Chinese balloon in the
U.S. brought attention back to these mysterious sightings.
The size of the Chinese balloon in the U.S., as well as the equipment
attached to it, had all drawn intense speculation as to its purpose. Along with
Washington, most security experts dismissed Beijing's assertions that the
balloon was intended for meteorological rather than spying purposes.
But it doesn't look like any weather balloon that Cheng Ming-dian, head of
Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau, has seen.
"In the meteorology world, I haven't found a person who has seen or heard of
a weather balloon that looks like this," Cheng said.
While China has in recent months moderated the abrasive tone of its
diplomacy, it is "still pursuing those broader, long-term strategic agendas on
the economic, tech and security fronts," said Collin Koh Swee Lean research
fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at Singapore's Nanyang
Technological University.
"In other words, if you cast the change in rhetoric aside, we're in fact not
seeing any real meaningful improvement in the extant China-U.S. relations,
which will continue to be dominated by rivalry," Koh said. "And the latest spy
balloon incident only looks set to broaden the schism."
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