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☆ China Rebukes U.S. for Taking Down Its Balloon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Brian Spegele | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Debris falling from the sky after the Chinese balloon was shot down. BEIJING—China’s vice foreign minister lodged strong criticism of the U.S. decision to shoot down a suspected surveillance balloon over the weekend, calling it an indiscriminate use of force that would further damage U.S.-China relations. Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng delivered the rebuke to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on Sunday, according to a statement published Monday by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The statement reiterated China’s position that the balloon was an unmanned civilian aircraft that had drifted off course.

☆ U.S. military searches for balloon remnants as China urges restraint
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A successful recovery could potentially give the United States insight into China's spying capabilities, though U.S. officials have downplayed the balloon's impact on national security. A U.S. fighter jet shot down the balloon in the Atlantic off South Carolina on Saturday, a response China described as an "obvious overreaction". Brokerage ING said in a Monday note that the incident could exacerbate the "tech war" and would have negative near-term impact on China's yuan currency. "This new risk is more of a long-term risk than an imminent one," ING said. China's yuan fell to a low of 6.8077 per dollar in early Monday trading, touching the weakest level in nearly a month.

☆ U.S.-China relations just got more fragile
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken indefinitely postponed his visit to Beijing due to a Chinese surveillance balloon flying over the United States. Brown | AFP | Getty ImagesBEIJING — U.S.-China relations look increasingly fragile, analysts say, after a now-downed Chinese balloon forced U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to indefinitely postpone his trip to Beijing. "A key question is why the Biden administration decided to publicize this balloon but not previous [reported] ones," Wildau said. While discussion of the balloon — including memes — circulated on Chinese social media, China's official Chinese-language mouthpieces have been more muted so far. "That alone would mean the Chinese leadership would be more restrained and would not want to let this balloon situation blow out of proportion."

Beijing condemned the shooting down of the balloon as an "obvious overreaction" and urged Washington to show restraint. Some U.S. Republicans have questioned why the balloon was not shot down before it was allowed to travel across the United States. Senior U.S. officials have offered to brief former Trump administration officials on the details of what the White House said were three China balloon overflights when Donald Trump was president. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China learned its balloon had drifted over the United States after being notified by Washington. On Sunday, Colombia's military said it sighted an airborne object similar to a balloon after the Pentagon said on Friday another Chinese balloon was flying over Latin America.

☆ Chinese foreign ministry welcomes visit by U.S. Secretary Blinken
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIJING, Jan 17 (Reuters) - China welcomes a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the country, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said at a regular news briefing on Tuesday. "China welcomes Secretary of State Blinken's visit to China. Politico reported that Blinken will meet in Beijing with his counterpart, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, on Feb. 5-6. Both leaders had agreed that Blinken would visit China to follow up on their discussions, according to the White House, although no specific date was mentioned then. Last month, a delegation of senior U.S. officials held talks with China's Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng in Langfang, a city neighbouring Beijing, in order to discuss Blinken's visit, according to the U.S. State Department.

China is likely to nominate Xie Feng , a vice foreign minister and a U.S. specialist, as its new ambassador to Washington, according to people familiar with the matter, continuing a gradual tempering of the abrasive “Wolf Warrior” style that has defined Chinese diplomacy in recent years. Beijing has been recalibrating its foreign policy in a bid to stabilize fraught ties with Washington and mitigate damage done to China’s global standing by its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and forceful pursuit of security, industrial and territorial interests, according to people working inside the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The hard-charging ethos that took hold among Chinese diplomats during the Trump administration, when Beijing saw itself as being under assault from the West, needs to be adjusted to reflect a changing international environment, they said.

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