Blinken and Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior overseas coverage official, held the hourlong talks in Munich, the place they had been attending a world safety convention, in keeping with the US State Department.
“I made very clear to him that China sending its surveillance balloon over the United States in violation of our sovereignty, in violation of international law, was unacceptable and must never happen again,” Blinken said Saturday in an interview for television network CBS’ Face the Nation.
His spokesman, Ned Price, said in a statement that Blinken also told the Chinese official that his nation’s “high-altitude surveillance balloon program — which has intruded into the airspace of over 40 countries across five continents — has been exposed to the world.”
Blinken had cancelled a trip to Beijing earlier this month due to the balloon incident, which has become a major issue of contention between the two countries.
A meeting at the conference in Germany had been widely anticipated.
Blinken also told Wang that the US does not seek conflict with China, repeating a standard talking point that the Biden administration has provided since it has come into office.
“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,” Price said.
Blinken “underscored the importance of maintaining diplomatic dialogue and open lines of communication at all times.”
In addition to the balloon incident, Price said Blinken had reiterated a warning to China on providing assistance to Russia to help with its war against Ukraine, including assisting Moscow with evading sanctions the West has imposed on Russia.
“I warned China against providing material support to Russia,” Blinken said in a tweet.
“I additionally emphasised the significance of maintaining open traces of communication.”
Earlier on Saturday, Wang had renewed Beijing’s criticism of the United States for taking pictures down the balloon, arguing that the transfer didn’t level to US energy.
Beijing insists the white orb shot down off the Carolina coast on February 4 was simply an errant civilian airship used primarily for meteorological analysis that went off beam resulting from winds and had solely restricted “self-steering” capabilities.
Wang, the director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, repeated that insistence in a speech on the convention and accused the US of violating worldwide authorized norms in destroying the thing with a missile fired from an US fighter jet.
“The actions don’t show that the US is big and strong, but describe the exact opposite,” Wang stated.
Wang additionally accused the US of denying China’s financial advances and looking for to impede its additional growth.
“What we hope for from the US is a pragmatic and positive approach to China that allows us to work together,” Wang stated.
His feedback got here shortly earlier than an tackle to the convention by Vice President Kamala Harris, who did not point out the balloon controversy or reply to Wang’s feedback.
She pressured the significance of upholding the “international rules-based order.”
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She stated Washington is “troubled that Beijing has deepened its relationship with Moscow since the war began” in Ukraine and that “looking ahead, any steps by China to provide lethal support to Russia would only reward aggression, continue the killing and further undermine a rules-based order.”
Source: www.9news.com.au
