US Condemns Chinese Spy Balloon Incursion in 1st In-Person Meeting

Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the 2023 Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 18, 2023. (Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in the first bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart, condemned the Beijing regime’s act of sending a surveillance balloon over U.S. airspace.

“Just met with the PRC’s top diplomat, Wang Yi,“ Blinken wrote on Twitter after their meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. ”I condemned the incursion of the PRC surveillance balloon and stressed it must never happen again. I warned China against providing [material] support to Russia. I also emphasized the importance of keeping open lines of communication.”

Blinken told NBC News after the meeting that Wang, the Chinese state councilor and director of Beijing’s Central Foreign Affairs Office, offered “no apology” for the balloon incident.

“There was no apology,” Blinken said. “But what I can also tell you is this was an opportunity to speak very clearly and very directly about the fact that China sent a surveillance balloon over our territory, violating our sovereignty, violating international law.”

“And I told him quite simply that that was unacceptable and can never happen again.”

The meeting marked the first face-to-face exchange between the two sides since the surveillance balloon incident that set off an uproar in the United States and forced Blinken to cancel a planned visit to Beijing.

That canceled trip would have been the first one taken by a U.S. secretary of state to China in five years, which the administration had seen as a chance to smooth over relations that had already deteriorated after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit in 2022.

Blinken “made clear the United States will not stand for any violation of our sovereignty, and that the PRC’s high altitude surveillance balloon program—which has intruded into the air space of over 40 countries across 5 continents—has been exposed to the world,” according to a readout from State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

Noting North Korea’s “destabilizing act” of testing an intercontinental ballistic missile on Feb. 18, Blinken “emphasized the need for responsible powers to respond to such significant international challenges,” according to the statement. Blinken also stressed that the China policy remains unchanged and urged for “peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait” as concerns mount that the Chinese regime could attack the self-governing island.

Beijing had insisted that the United States formally initiate the meeting, Politico reported, citing an anonymous Washington diplomat. Blinken made a request but received no response from China before boarding the Munich-bound flight on Feb. 16, according to the report.

At the Munich conference prior to the meeting, Wang increased his rhetoric against Washington, repeating the regime’s claims that the U.S. decision to have a fighter jet shoot down the balloon in U.S. airspace was “absurd, almost hysterical.” He demanded the United States “correct its mistakes” to “show sincerity.”

China's Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Wang Yi speaks at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, on Feb. 18, 2023. (Petr David Josek/AP Photo)

Hours after Wang’s comments, Blinken left his Munich hotel for an undisclosed location, ignoring a shouted question from a reporter about whether he was going to meet with Wang as he entered his vehicle in the hotel garage.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration said the Chinese balloon that flew over the U.S. airspace for more than a week was part of a global surveillance program that affects more than 40 countries, including Washington’s “closest allies and partners.”

But President Joe Biden and administration officials have stressed that they want to keep the lines of communication open and aren’t looking for conflicts.

“I expect to be speaking with President Xi, and I hope we are going to get to the bottom of this,” Biden stated at a Feb. 16 news conference, although he added that he makes “no apologies for taking down that balloon.”

“We’ll also continue to engage with China, as we have throughout the past two weeks,” he said.

Blinken reiterated Biden’s statements at the meeting with Wang, saying that “the United States will compete and will unapologetically stand up for our values and interests but that we do not want conflict with the PRC and are not looking for a new Cold War,” according to Price.

“The Secretary underscored the importance of maintaining diplomatic dialogue and open lines of communication at all times.”

When asked about the meeting, the State Department directed The Epoch Times to its official statement.

This article has been updated to include further remarks from the meeting.