What happened will not be limited to the postponement of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s visit to Beijing. “This will mainly affect the perception of China and its technological capabilities in the United States,” Pushkov wrote on his Telegram channel.
The senator added: if official Washington had accepted the Chinese side’s explanations that it was just a civilian scientific apparatus, they would hardly have decided to postpone Blinken’s visit.
Recall, the day before, the NBC channel reported that the Pentagon has been monitoring a Chinese reconnaissance balloon for several days, which flew from the Aleutian Islands, crossed Canada and reached the state of Montana. The US authorities immediately took emergency measures to protect classified information.
Later, on the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a comment about the unintentional hit of a Chinese balloon in the US sky. It was emphasized that this is an object purely civilian, which was intended for meteorological research work. Due to westerly winds and limited control options, the balloon deviated greatly from its planned course.
However, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken decided to postpone his visit to Beijing. According to media reports, he fears that the “spy ball” issue will prevail in negotiations with Middle Kingdom partners and, in fact, devalue his trip to China.
