President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the United States is not seeking conflict with China, despite heightened tensions after last week’s downing of a Chinese balloon that officials say was part of a spy fleet spanning five continents. “We’re going to compete fully with China, but… we’re not looking for conflict — and that’s been the case so far,” he told PBS in a televised interview.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken highlighted the global ramifications of the incident, noting that the United States is sharing data with allies as it assesses recovered debris. “We already shared information with dozens of countries around the world, both from Washington and through our embassies,” he said at a joint news conference with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. “We’re doing so because the United States was not the only target of this broader program, which has violated the sovereignty of countries across five continents.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean‑Pierre, speaking on Air Force One, described the balloons as part of a fleet that has been spotted worldwide for several years. A large white balloon carrying sophisticated equipment traversed the continental United States last week before Biden ordered the military to shoot it down just off the east coast in the Atlantic. China maintains that the balloon was conducting weather research, but the Pentagon characterized it as a high‑tech spying operation that floated at an altitude far higher than most aircraft and passed directly over at least one sensitive U.S. military site.
NATO Secretary‑General Jens Stoltenberg, whose visit to Washington followed trips to Japan and South Korea, said the incident underscores the need for alliance members to protect themselves. “The Chinese balloon over the United States confirms a pattern of Chinese behavior where we see that China over the last years has invested heavily in new military capabilities,” he said. “We’ve also seen increased Chinese intelligence activities in Europe. They use satellites, they use cyber and, as we’ve seen over the United States, also balloons. So we just have to be vigilant.” Stoltenberg added that China appears to be drawing lessons from the war in Ukraine, warning that “what happens in Europe today could happen in Asia tomorrow,” and pointing to Beijing’s pressure on Taiwan.
The Washington Post, citing U.S. officials, reported that the Chinese surveillance program is partly run from the southern island of Hainan. Updating older technology, the balloons have been used to monitor the military assets of nearby rivals such as Japan, India and Taiwan. In his State of the Union address, Biden said his order to shoot down the balloon demonstrated that the United States would not hesitate to act when needed, while also stressing that it does not want conflict with China.
The balloon episode prompted Blinken to postpone a planned trip to China, where he had hoped to ease tensions. China expressed regret over the air intrusion but later denounced the U.S. decision to down the balloon, responding to Biden that it would “firmly defend” its interests. U.S. officials said they took measures to prevent the balloon’s instruments from collecting confidential information during its flight and argued that waiting until the balloon reached water was the only way to ensure public safety. Biden’s Republican rivals, however, contend that he should have ordered the balloon destroyed as soon as it was identified.
Comments are closed for this story.