Biden wants to talk to Xi Jinping about the alleged Chinese spy balloon

US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he looks forward to speaking with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, about the alleged surveillance balloon he ordered to shoot down this monthwhich underscores the strained relations between the two countries over an incident that has already disrupted lines of bilateral communication at the highest level.

“I look forward to speaking with President Xi, and I hope we get to the bottom of this. But I don’t apologize for shooting down that balloon,” he said in a televised appearance laying out his administration’s plans to deal with the spy balloon and three others. unidentified aerial objects who also ordered to shoot down.

These objects are not believed to be related to a surveillance program by China or any other country, Biden said.

“The current assessment of the intelligence services is that these three objects are probably balloons linked to private companies, recreational or research institutions that study the climate or carry out other scientific investigations,” the president said.

Biden said the incident “underscores the importance of keeping the lines of communication open between our professional diplomats and military” and reiterated that his administration is “not seeking a new Cold War” with China.

Tensions between the United States and China have been high since the balloon’s appearance in US airspace earlier in the month. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceled his planned February 5 trip to Beijing. Just days later, the Pentagon said China rejected a call from US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Administration officials concluded that the device was part of an “international high-altitude balloon program for intelligence gathering” of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which has flown over 40 countries. Beijing maintains that the balloon was a civil aircraft used for meteorological research.

a flight protocol

Biden outlined the protocol steps his administration will implement to “safely and effectively deal with these objects in our airspace,” based on the recommendations of an interagency team led by White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

The protocol includes establishing an accessible and up-to-date inventory of unmanned aerial objects over US airspace; implement measures to improve the detection capacity of unmanned objects; and the rules and regulations for the launch and maintenance of unmanned objects. The president also tasked Secretary of State Antony Blinken with leading an effort to help establish “common global standards” in this largely unregulated space.

Biden said his administration will determine classified parameters, to be shared with some members of Congress, for how the US will handle the appearance of unidentified aerial objects in the future, distinguishing those that pose a security risk versus those that are harmless.

“If any item poses a threat to the security of the American people, I will remove it,” he vowed.

In general, the US military intercepts all high-altitude airborne objects and deals with those it cannot confirm as benign, Carl Schuster, former director of operations for the Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center in Washington, told Voice of America. USA.

“NORAD [Comando de Defensa Aeroespacial de América del Norte, por sus siglas en inglés] and the White House rely on a protocol that separates benign contacts from worrisome and threatening ones. Until then, NORAD will continue to intercept everyone and shoot down those whose status is uncertain,” he said.

Biden is under intense pressure from Republican lawmakers demanding more transparency about how the government plans to deal with such incidents in the future. On Tuesday, the administration gave lawmakers a classified briefing on flying objects.

“Last week, we saw the president basically watching the balloon fly across the United States, he had very little to say about it at the time, just passing a reference to the episode in the State of the Union,” the leader of the party said. minority in the Senate, Republican Mitch McConnell, to reporters after the briefing. “The American people deserve to hear more from the president.”

[Katherine Gypson, corresponsal de VOA en el Congreso, y Xiaoshan Xue, reportero del Servicio de Mandarín de VOA, contribuyeron a este despacho].

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