A trade war, semiconductors, human rights: in recent years, the U.S.-China relationship has been rocked by successive geopolitical crises that have strained the dynamic between two of the world’s most powerful countries.
Now a balloon is threatening to derail any possibility of a diplomatic détente, with Beijing also accusing the U.S. of sending balloons to China.
Both the U.S. and China have traded fiery allegations of extensive aerial surveillance programs and injecting a new source of distrust and animosity between the two countries.
The balloon’s appearance earlier this month also prompted the U.S. to shoot down other “unidentified objects” in the sky, and sparked a fresh wave of criticism in Washington, with Republicans accusing President Joe Biden of not acting quickly enough or providing enough transparency.
Here’s a look at what’s happened so far.
Feb. 2: A senior U.S. defense official tells reporters that the U.S. is tracking a flying object and has “very high confidence” that the object is a Chinese high-altitude balloon and is flying over sensitive sites to collect information.
A Chinese spy balloon over the U.S. is alarming but not surprising
The level of espionage aimed at our country by Beijing has grown dramatically more intense & brazen over the last 5 years
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 2, 2023
Domestic pressure immediately begins to build. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio tweets the incident is “alarming but not surprising.”
Feb. 3: In a rare expression of contrition, China says it “regrets the unintended entry of the airship into U.S. airspace.” It insists the balloon was not there to spy on U.S. military sites, but was a civilian airship sent up for research purposes and had accidentally…
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