President Joe Biden sought to ease concerns about tensions between the United States and China, especially as Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Beijing over the weekend with the goal of improving relations.
Biden acknowledged “legitimate differences” between the two countries that he hopes to smooth over with Chinese President Xi Jinping over the coming months, expressing confidence the two can repair their diplomatic relationship. However, Biden said China must deal with its own “difficulties unrelated to the United States,” referencing a Chinese surveillance balloon that was discovered in U.S. airspace in February.
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“I think one of the things that balloon caused, not so much that it got shot down, but I don’t think leadership knew where it was and knew what was in it and knew what was going on,” Biden told reporters on Saturday. “I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional.”
Biden’s comments come as Blinken plans to meet with senior Chinese officials over the weekend, following through with a trip that was initially delayed after the discovery of the Chinese balloon. The visit marks Blinken’s first trip to China as secretary of state with the goal to open the door to reestablishing routine meetings and talks between the two countries.
The trip comes nearly six months after a Chinese-owned surveillance balloon was spotted in late January hovering over U.S. airspace, prompting concerns from government officials. The balloon was later shot down on Feb. 4, with its debris being collected and sent to the FBI for an investigation.
Lawmakers have since called on Biden to release the FBI findings, pressing the administration to answer how the balloon managed to enter the domestic airspace and what information it was able to gather. Several Republicans have criticized Biden over his lack of action since its discovery, accusing the president of failing to confront China’s “brazen threats to America’s security and sovereignty.”
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“In addition to deploying a spy platform into U.S. territory, the [People’s Republic of China] PRC has conducted dangerous maneuvers against U.S. aircrafts in the South China Sea and U.S. ships navigating international waters, and continues to support Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine, harass American companies operating in China, commit egregious human rights violations, all while threatening a free and democratic Taiwan,” a group of GOP senators wrote to the president earlier this week.
“We therefore call on you to stand up to Beijing’s efforts to coerce the United States into silence on the PRC’s violation of U.S. sovereignty and to release the FBI’s findings on the PRC’s spy balloon immediately.”
