Beijing: Top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi has told US secretary of state Antony Blinken that the US used “excessive” force in handling the balloon incident and urged Washington to repair the damage its aftermath has caused to bilateral ties.
Wang, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met Blinken on the sidelines of the ongoing 59th Munich Security Conference at the request of the US side, Chinese state media reported on Sunday.
“Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, urged the US side to change course, acknowledge and repair the damage that its excessive use of force caused to China-US relations,” the state-run China Daily newspaper said in a brief report on the meeting between Wang and Blinken, their first meeting since the US shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina earlier this month.
Wang, according to a second state media report, told Blinken that the US should “face up and fix the damage” to bilateral ties,
On his part, Blinken told Wang that the incident should not be repeated.
“The secretary made clear the United States will not stand for any violation of our sovereignty,” state department spokesperson Ned Price said, noting that the top US diplomat assailed China’s balloon incursion as an “irresponsible act [that] must never again occur,”, according to the Washington Post.
Blinken also reiterated to Wang that Beijing’s alleged balloon surveillance programme has “intruded into the airspace of over 40 countries across 5 continents [and] has been exposed to the world,” Price said, according to the report.
Already strained because of multiple disputes, ties between China and the US have become further strained since the balloon was shot down earlier this month with Beijing denying that it was a surveillance airship and criticising the US for “hyping” the situation and overreacting.
Speaking the security conference, Wang, according to the official news agency, Xinhua, called the incident a “political farce created by the US” and said Beijing had clearly told Washington that the “…Chinese civilian unmanned airship, affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, deviated from its planned course and entered the US airspace”.
“Unfortunately, the US ignored the basic facts and brazenly sent a fighter jet to shoot down the non-threatening airship with a missile,” Wang was quoted as saying by Xinhua, adding: “Such an unthinkable and hysterical action is, without doubt, excessive use of force, and clearly violates common practice and relevant international law.”