“The United States is exaggerating in this matter,” Lu Shaye, the Chinese ambassador to France, told French news on Monday, adding, “it is a civilian balloon used for meteorological research.”
Blinken Postpones Trip
On Saturday, Blinken spoke by phone with Wang Yi, the head of the Communist Party of China’s foreign relations bureau and one of the officials he had been slated to meet, but took up a very different tone. Blinken called the balloon flight “an irresponsible act and a clear violation of US sovereignty and international law that undermined the purpose of the trip.”
Persona non Grata
Pentagon officials have since stated that the most recent balloon, while the most egregious violation, was not the first Chinese balloon to do so, with at least three other instances discovered during the Trump administration. However, the Pentagon only found out about them after the fact, through intelligence analysis, so no action was taken against them at the time.