WASHINGTON — The Biden administration postponed Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s upcoming trip to Beijing after detecting a Chinese surveillance balloon that was lingering at high altitude over sensitive nuclear sites in Montana.
“It was a consensus that that it was not appropriate to travel to the People’s Republic of China at this time,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday. Despite a Chinese statement of regret, she said, “the presence of this balloon in our airspace — it is a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law, and it is unacceptable this occurred.”
Blinken was set to have meetings in Beijing early next week in the first such visit by a top U.S. diplomat in five years. But the presence of the balloon — which the Pentagon decided not to shoot down — led officials to decide that going now would send the wrong signal, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations.
