Key Points
- China expressed regret that a "civilian" airship had strayed into US territory after being blown off course.
- The incident sparked a political furore in the United States.
- US military leaders considered shooting down the balloon over Montana on Wednesday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed a visit to China after a Chinese balloon was tracked flying across the United States in what US officials have called a "clear violation" of US sovereignty.
"After consultations with our interagency partners as well as with Congress, we have concluded that the conditions are not right at this moment for Secretary Blinken to travel to China," a senior State Department official told reporters.
"We have noted the PRC (People's Republic of China) statement of regret but the presence of this balloon in our airspace is a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law, and it is unacceptable that this has occurred," the official said.
"The secretary conveyed to the director of the Central Foreign Affairs Office Wang Yi earlier this morning, that the trip would need to be postponed. But the secretary indicated that he would plan to travel to the PRC at the earliest opportunity when conditions allow."
Why has the trip been cancelled?
Local broadcaster ABC News earlier cited a US official as saying Mr Blinken did not want to blow the situation out of proportion by cancelling his visit but also did not want the balloon incident to dominate his meetings with Chinese officials.
China expressed regret that a "civilian" airship had strayed into US territory after being blown off course, an incident that sparked a political furore in the United States.
Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told reporters on Thursday that the government was tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon over the continental United States and said it was "travelling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground".
US military leaders considered shooting down the balloon over Montana on Wednesday but eventually, President Joe Biden decided against it because of the safety risk from debris, US officials said on Thursday.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton had called for Mr Blinken to cancel his trip while Republican former president Donald Trump, a declared presidential candidate for 2024, posted "SHOOT DOWN THE BALLOON!" on his Truth Social media platform.
Why was the meeting important?
In a statement on Friday, China's foreign ministry said the balloon was for civilian meteorological and other scientific purposes and that it regretted that the airship had strayed into US airspace.
Postponement of Mr Blinken's trip, which was agreed to in November by Mr Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping and had been expected to start on Friday, is a blow to those on both sides who saw it as an overdue opportunity to stabilise an increasingly fractious relationship.
The last visit by a US secretary of state was in 2017.
Mr Biden ignored questions about the balloon when giving remarks on the economy on Friday morning.
One US official said the balloon was assessed to have "limited additive value from an intelligence collection perspective". One US official said the flight path would carry the balloon over a number of sensitive sites but did not give details.
'Too big to be a star'
Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana is home to 150 intercontinental ballistic missile silos.
The Billings, Montana, airport issued a ground stop as the military mobilised assets including F-22 fighter jets in case Biden ordered that the balloon be shot down.
Billings resident Chase Doak, who filmed it on Wednesday, said at first he thought it was a star. "But I thought that was kind of crazy because it was broad daylight and when I looked at it, it was just too big to be a star," he said.
Such balloons typically operate at 24,000-37,000 metres, well above where commercial air traffic flies.
From military spy satellites in space to advanced electronic intelligence aircraft and submarines, the United States routinely deploys an array of assets to monitor China's military build-up, analysts and diplomats say.
China has often complained about surveillance by the United States, including its deployment of ships or planes near Chinese military exercises.
