US military searches for balloon remnants as China urges restraint

BEIJING/WASHINGTON — The US military mentioned on Sunday it’s looking out for remnants of the suspected Chinese language surveillance balloon it shot down a day earlier, whereas Beijing on Monday urged Washington to not escalate or take additional motion to hurt its pursuits.

The drama over the balloon, which Beijing once more reiterated is a civilian airship that by chance strayed into US airspace, has additional strained already-tense relations and led Washington to cancel a deliberate go to to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The US Navy is working to get better the balloon and its payload and the Coast Guard is offering safety for the operation, Normal Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Protection Command and US Northern Command, mentioned on Sunday.

A profitable restoration might doubtlessly give america perception into China’s spying capabilities, although US officers have downplayed the balloon’s impression on nationwide safety.

A US fighter jet shot down the balloon within the Atlantic off South Carolina on Saturday, a response China described as an “obvious overreaction”.

“China firmly opposes and strongly protests against this,” China’s Vice International Minister Xie Feng mentioned in remarks to the US embassy in Beijing that had been posted on the ministry’s web site on Monday morning.

“The Chinese government is closely following the development of the situation,” he mentioned.

The balloon incident comes as america and China had sought to bolster communications and start to fix ties that had been underneath extreme pressure lately over tensions on a number of fronts, together with US efforts to dam Chinese language entry to key cutting-edge applied sciences.

China has warned of “serious repercussions” and mentioned it’ll use the required means to cope with “similar situations,” with out elaborating, though some analysts mentioned they count on any response to be finely calibrated to maintain from making bilateral ties even worse.

Brokerage ING mentioned in a Monday observe that the incident might exacerbate the “tech war” and would have unfavorable near-term impression on China’s yuan forex.

“Both sides will likely impose more export bans on technology in different industries. This is a new threat to supply chain disruption, although the risk of logistical disruption from Covid restrictions has now disappeared,” it mentioned.

“This new risk is more of a long-term risk than an imminent one,” ING mentioned.

China’s yuan fell to a low of 6.8077 per greenback in early Monday buying and selling, touching the weakest degree in practically a month. — Reuters

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