China blasts US over 'hysterical' balloon claim

MUNICH: China’s top diplomat Wang Yi on Saturday blasted the United States’s reaction to what Washington has called a Chinese spy balloon as “hysterical and absurd”, in uncharacteristically strong remarks against the top Western power.

Addressing a gathering of world leaders at the Munich Security Conference, Wang said US President Joe Biden’s administration has a “misguided” perception of Beijing.

He accused Washington of trying to “smear” the Asian giant while it itself was implementing policies that ran counter to its paradigms such as free trade.

“There are many balloons from many countries in the sky. Do you want to down each and every one of them?” Wang charged.

“We urge the United States not to do such preposterous things simply to divert attention from its own domestic problems.”

The United States has been in a state of alarm since a huge white balloon from China spotted over top-secret nuclear weapons sites, before being shot down just off the east coast on February 4.

Beijing denies it uses spy balloons and says the craft was for weather research. Subsequently it accused Washington of sending its own espionage balloons over its territory — something that the US has denied.

The spate had led US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to abruptly cancel a rare visit to China.

With Blinken also in Munich for the conference, all eyes are on whether both sides succeed in setting up a meeting.

But asked if he was planning a huddle with the US delegation, Wang reacted combatively.

Washington, he said, had the wrong view of China as a serious geopolitical challenge and a threat to the United States.

“This is a misguided perception of China and with this perception, the United States is using all of its means to smear and clamp down China, and is co-opting other countries to do the same,” he said.

Wang accused the US instead of “100 percent protectionism, 100 percent self-servingness, 100 percent unilateral action” in its own economic policies like the Chips Act.

“We hope the US side would take a pragmatic and proactive attitude towards China and work together with China to return our bilateral ties to accept a track of sound development,” he added.