calls to shoot the balloon
Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, demanded to know on Friday why the administration had not shot down the balloon, accusing the president of allowing it to pose a “direct and ongoing national security threat to the American homeland.”
China has often complained about surveillance of its growing military by US ships and aircraft, although in recent years such operations have been conducted from widely recognized international waters and airspace.
The mood in China was also gloomy regarding the balloons. The government expressed regret that the “airship” used for civilian meteorological and other scientific purposes had gone astray. However, some Chinese domestic commentators were fearful about the US response.
“If Blinken were to cancel his trip to Beijing because of the balloon, I would see it as an excuse to do what he wanted to do anyway – not travel to China,” said Zhu Feng, executive dean of the Beijing Institute of Technology. Speaking before the State Department, the School of International Relations at Nanjing University announced the cancellation of the trip.
Some analysts said that if Blinken had gone ahead with the trip, it would likely have opened the administration to more harsh criticism that its approach to China was weak and had poor optics in Congress, where Beijing was expected to take a hard line. There is bipartisan support for.
missed opportunities
Expectations were low for Blinken’s visit, but he intended to take up by name the cases of American citizens who the United States says have been wrongfully detained in China, and help stop the flow of fentanyl to Beijing. Inspired to collaborate, where any progress in both areas will build momentum that can lead to other discussions.
Evan Kanpathy, the White House’s National Security Council’s former deputy senior director for Asia, said he expected a series of hearings about China in Congress that would make it difficult for Blinken to justify the trip to Beijing, when unless he can win the release of the detained Americans or return with an even bigger prize.
China also wants a stable US relationship so it can focus on its economy, now battered by the abandoned zero-Covid policy.
Blinken’s visit – in what would be the first by a secretary of state to China since 2018 – was seen largely as an effort to develop ways to head off future crises. With new Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy traveling to Taiwan this year, the next crisis may not be far off.