China offered “no apology” for the spy balloon that traveled across most of the US earlier this month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday, as he cautioned that Beijing was planning on providing lethal assistance to Russia during its nearly year long war on Ukraine.
The developments come despite President Biden claiming that the spy balloon, which was shot down Feb. 4 in the Atlantic off the South Carolina coast, would not hinder communications between Washington and Beijing and his relationship with Xi Jinping.
“There was no apology,” Blinken told NBC News’ Chuck Todd in an interview on “Meet the Press” aired Sunday.
“But what I can also tell you is this was an opportunity to speak very clearly and very directly about the fact that China sent a surveillance balloon over our territory, violating our sovereignty, violating international law. And I told him quite simply that that was unacceptable and can never happen again.”
Blinken met with Wang Saturday night at the international security conference in Munich — their first face-to-face meeting since US fighter jets downed the balloon off the South Carolina coast Feb. 4.
At the same time, State Department spokesman Ned Price punctuated the meeting by releasing a statement saying that Beijing’s surveillance program “has been exposed to the world.”
Blinken told NBC that other countries have also been “on the receiving end of these surveillance balloons.”
Blinken and Wang met for about an hour at the annual security conference, a sit-down that came shortly after Wang accused the US of being “hysterical” in shooting down the balloon, noting it was “absurd” that it violated international customs.
“There are so many balloons all over the world, so is the United States going to shoot all of them down?” Wang asked.
Rep. Michael McCaul, the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was asked about Wang’s remarks and said he urged Blinken’s team to warn the Chinese that the US “will not tolerate a spy balloon that’s committing espionage over the United States again.
“But McCaul (R-Texas), who is also attending the Munich conference, called the flyover “embarrassing.”
“This is a time when our relations have never been more — the tension is very high right now, I should say. And I think the spy balloon was so embarrassing, going over three major military installations with nuclear warheads, the idea it could capture imagery and send it back to Beijing to another ship caused a lot of damage to our national security, but also political damage, in the sense that Americans saw this with the naked eye and it was flying so low to the ground,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Biden bristled last week when he was asked by reporters if his ability to confront China was “compromised” by his family’s business interests in the Communist country.
“Give me a break, man,” Biden responded with a dismissive laugh. A reporter for The Post questioned the president about whether first son Hunter Biden still co-owns a company with Chinese government entities.”
“You can come to my office and ask a question when you have more polite people with you,” Biden replied.
Later, the president said in an interview with NBC that Xi doesn’t want to scuttle their relationship.
“I think the last thing that Xi wants is to fundamentally rip the relationship with the United States and with me,” Biden said in response to a question about how the spy balloon has roiled already tense relations between the two countries.
Blinken, in the NBC interview, also expressed “concern” that China was planning on providing lethal military aid to Russia for its ongoing invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
“What we’ve seen over the past years is, of course, some political and rhetorical support, even some nonlethal support. But we are very concerned that China is considering providing lethal support to Russia in its aggression against Ukraine,” America’s top diplomat said.
“And I made clear that that would have serious consequences in our relationship as well, something that President Biden has shared directly with President Xi on several occasions,” he said.
Blinken wouldn’t elaborate on what kinds of support China was considering offering Russia, but said Beijing is trying to “have it both ways.”
“Publicly, they present themselves as a country striving for peace in Ukraine. But privately, as I said, we’ve seen already over these past months the provision of nonlethal assistance that does go directly to aiding and abetting Russia’s war effort,” Blinken said.
“And some further information that we are sharing today and that I think will be out there soon that indicates that they are strongly considering providing lethal assistance to Russia,” he said, adding that so far China hasn’t.
Remarking on the two flashpoints, Blinken reiterated that Washington and Beijing must keep the lines of communication open.
“I think this is something that the world expects of us. They expect us to manage this relationship responsibly. And so it was important that we had that opportunity this evening here in Munich,” he said.
Price said in his statement that Blinken warned China about the consequences it will face in helping Russia militarily or or to evade international sanctions, but remains committed to working on the relationship.
“The secretary reiterated President Biden’s statements that the United States will compete and will unapologetically stand up for our values and interests, but that we do not want conflict with the PRC and are not looking for a new Cold War. The secretary underscored the importance of maintaining diplomatic dialogue and open lines of communication at all times,” Price said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
