According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, China does not appear to be apologetic for this month’s spy balloon incident, as he says the country’s foreign minister offered “no apology” when the two met.
Earlier this month, the US watched as a Chinese spy balloon traversed across the country before being shot down over North Carolina. In the weeks since, officials for both countries have discussed what happened, but China continues to deny that the purpose of the balloon was espionage.
Blinken spoke with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Saturday, discussing his meeting with Wang Yi, the director of the People’s Republic of China CCP Central Foreign Affairs office, before the interview.
“There was no apology,” Blinken said. “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.”
However, speaking in Munich on Saturday before the two met, Wang criticized the US for shooting down the balloon.
“There are so many balloons all over the world, and various countries have them, so is the United States going to shoot all of them down?” Wang said, adding that the country’s response was “hysterical.”
The Secretary of State told NBC that he told Wang “quite simply that [the balloon] was unacceptable and can never happen again.”
Since the first spy balloon, several other unidentified aerial objects have been shot down over North America, including ones over Alaska, Canada, and Lake Huron. Department of Defense officials have not been able to recover the remains of the objects, being they are in remote, hard to get to places or at the bottom of a great lake.
However, this wasn’t the only topic of discussion that Blinken and Wang had, as the US official shared that he also expressed his concerns about China supporting Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
“We are very concerned that China’s considering providing lethal support to Russia in its aggression against Ukraine,” Blinken said. “I made clear that that would have serious consequences in our relationship, as well something that President [Joe] Biden has shared directly with President Xi [Jinping] on several occasions.”
The last thing Blinken said he discussed with Wang was the breakdown in communication between the two countries, saying instead, they should have an open line.
“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,” Blinken said.
However, Wang is placing the responsibility of repairing relations on the US, as he told Blinken the US needs to address its “abuse of force,” the Chinese government said in a statement.
Blinken went back at this, saying he told Wang the US isn’t the only nation to be a victim of Chinese spy balloons.
“More than forty countries have had these balloons fly over them in recent years, and that’s been exposed to the world,” Blinken said.
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