Monitoring Desk
WASHINGTON: The political disturbance over a suspected Chinese spy balloon soaring over the United States (US) did not only derail a planned visit to China by the top US diplomat but also threatened to upset attempts by both nations to steady an increasingly rocky relationship.
The reaction in the US to what appears to be a mismanaged spying mission will have long-lasting consequences for efforts to stabilize relations — already near historic lows. Some US parliamentarians are demanding that President Joe Biden, a Democrat, hold China accountable for what officials call an unacceptable violation of US sovereignty.
Senior diplomat, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who postponed a visit that was to begin on Friday, said he would be ready to visit China “when conditions allow.” Still, policy analysts said that the administration could be hard-pressed to quickly revive the visit short of China offering up serious goodwill gestures.
Top US diplomat for Asia under then-President Barack Obama, Daniel Russel, said China’s “laughable alibi” that the airship was an errant weather balloon did not help.
US-China relations in Joe Biden’s era
“This incident has soured the political atmosphere and hardened positions, and there is no guarantee the two sides can successfully resurrect the ‘Bali’ momentum,” Daniel Russel said, referring to the November meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in Indonesia where they agreed to increase communications.
Ties between the superpowers had frayed over the past few years. They sank to their worst in decades last August when the then-US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, prompting Beijing to conduct military drills near the Chinese-claimed island.
Since then, the Biden administration has said it hopes to build a ground for the relationship and ensure that rivalry does not spiral into conflict.
But Republicans who control the House are already working on ways to investigate potential threats from the United States’ top geopolitical rival and have been quick to put heat on Biden about the balloon, questioning how it was allowed into US airspace.
