China explained that the “civilian” flying object was used for “research, especially meteorological”, and would have diverted due to strong winds. The visit of the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, scheduled for February 5 and 6, has been canceled.
by Piotr Smolar (Washington, correspondent) and Frédéric Lemaître (Beijing, correspondent )
The visit of Secretary of State Antony Blinken in China, scheduled for Sunday, February 5 and Monday, February 6, was to be an event in itself. First of its kind in six years for a chief of American diplomacy, she understood, it seems, a meeting with President Xi Jinping, a kind of protocol and political favor. But a flying object – a spy ball – struck this program, driving Washington, Friday, February 3, to “postpone” the trip. Antony Blinken met during the day with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in order to justify this decision. The visit would not have been “appropriate” due to “the irresponsible act” Chinese, according to a statement from the State Department.
Thursday, the Pentagon revealed the presence of the spy ball above the state of Montana. “We know that it is a surveillance ball”, evolving at around 18,000 meters above sea level, explained the spokesperson for the Pentagon, Brigadier General Pat Ryder. It was not until Friday evening for China to recognize that it belonged to it and expressed its regrets, while explaining that the “civilian” flying object was actually used for “research, especially meteorological”. According to Beijing, he would have diverted due to strong winds and inadvertently entered American airspace. However, he now seems to be on the east and should remain above the United States “a few days”, according to the Pentagon. A kind of basket with surveillance capacities would be under the ball itself.
In this state of Montana is a base of the air forces and shooting fields dedicated to nuclear missiles. The ball was flying to a “significantly higher” attitude than conventional trade traffic and presented no risk for residents on the ground, notes a senior Pentagon official. On several occasions in recent years, such an activity had already been spotted, including before the arrival of Joe Biden at the White House. Seized of the case on the 1 er February, the president found himself in front of a choice, both security and political: was it necessary to shoot the ball?
a ” Limited added value “in terms of information
The Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, was at the same time traveling to the Philippines to formalize the extension of the American military presence in this country, and in Indo-Pacific in general, in the face of Chinese aspirations. He organized a crisis meeting to assess the various options. The chief of staff of the armed forces, General Mark Milley, recommended that not hit the target, because too significant a risk would have existed for the population on the ground, even very little dense in this region, because of the debris . This estimate gives an indication of the imposing size of the flying object, which the Pentagon did not want to specify.
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