Beijing turned down Washington’s request Saturday for a phone call between U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Wei Fangha after the U.S. Air Force shot down a Chinese balloon, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday, and U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to take action if China threatens US sovereignty.
Relations between Washington and Beijing have deteriorated further in recent days due to the overflight of a Chinese balloon.
“As we showed last week, if China threatens our national sovereignty, we will take action to protect our country, and we did,” Joe Biden said Tuesday in his address to Congress.
“Our commitment to keeping the channels of communication open will continue,” Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder assured, despite the US request being denied, reflecting worsening relations between Washington and Beijing.
On Saturday, a US fighter jet shot down a Chinese balloon over North Carolina waters.
According to Washington, it was a spy balloon that entered US airspace to collect information about strategically important objects.
Beijing claimed that the balloon served “for research purposes, mainly meteorological” and that it “inadvertently” entered US airspace.
On Monday, China’s foreign ministry reiterated that the US downing of the Chinese balloon “has seriously affected and damaged” Sino-US relations.
Source: RES-IPE
Source: Kathimerini
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