Beijing (EFE).- China today accused the United States of “seriously damaging” relations between the two powers after Washington shot down the Chinese balloon that was flying over US airspace.
Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Xie Feng has assured that “the civil aircraft strayed into US airspace by accident” and that the United States “made indiscriminate use of force” against the device.
In a statement published by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the official described Washington’s reaction as “exaggerated” and accused the North American country of “seriously violating the spirit of international law.”
For her part, the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mao Ning, reiterated this Monday that China “always respects international laws and the national sovereignty of countries” and has warned that “we reserve the right to respond in any way proper.”
The United States shot down the balloon on Saturday, which had been flying over the country for several days and whose remains fell into the sea and are being recovered.
China admitted on Friday that the airship belonged to it, although it insists that it is a balloon for “civilian use, for research purposes, mainly meteorological.”
The discovery of these balloons in US airspace has triggered a diplomatic crisis between Washington and Beijing and led to the suspension of the trip that the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, planned to make to the Asian country last weekend.
the second balloon
Regarding the second aircraft detected by the Pentagon, the Chinese government has stated that the Latin American countries through which it flew over “understand” that it does not “represent any threat.”
“China is always governed by international law, we do not represent a threat to any of these countries and they understand it that way,” said Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning.
According to different sources, the countries over which the passage of the aircraft was detected are Costa Rica, Colombia and Venezuela.
The Chinese authorities have justified this circumstance by assuring that the balloon “was affected by the weather conditions, in addition to its limited maneuverability, which caused its unintentional entry into the airspace of Latin American countries.”
Last Friday, the Pentagon spokesman, Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, announced that the US had detected a second airship, after the one discovered on Thursday in US airspace, but over the skies of Latin America.
China had not commented on this second supposed “spy balloon” until Monday.