Harris says China spy balloon shouldn’t harm Beijing relations: Report
Katherine Doyle
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Vice President Kamala Harris said the discovery of a Chinese surveillance balloon traversing the U.S. should not affect diplomatic relations between the two superpowers.
The Biden administration downed the spy balloon several days after the object entered U.S. airspace amid public pressure and outcry from lawmakers who pointed to its loitering over secure military bases. Washington blacklisted six Chinese entities it said were linked to Beijing’s balloon program in response.
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Asked whether tensions over the episode might harm U.S.-China relations, Harris told Politico in an interview, “I don’t think so, no.”
“Everything that has happened in the last week and a half is, we believe, very consistent with our stated approach,” she added.
Harris described the administration’s approach to China as seeking “competition, but not conflict or confrontation” and said this was the message she relayed in a meeting with President Xi Jinping when the two met briefly at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Bangkok late last year.
The incursion has led to a rhetorical sparring match between Washington and Beijing, with a recent editorial in the People’s Daily, a government mouthpiece, declaring the U.S. “irresponsible — indeed hysterical” in its response.
The White House has denied China’s accusations that it flew multiple balloons over Chinese airspace last year.
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Biden has asked his national security adviser to lead an interagency task force to address “unidentified aerial objects,” the White House said this week.
Government officials waited several days before a U.S. military jet shot down the balloon on Feb. 4, drawing alarm.