Biden administration State Department officials held private talks with Beijing counterparts about the Chinese spy balloon that intercepted U.S. airspace in 2023, and discussed the implications the balloon’s publicity would have on the relationship between the U.S. and China, according to Trump administration officials.
U.S. officials identified the spy balloon infiltrating U.S. airspace on Jan. 28, 2023, and an Air Force fighter jet shot down the Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina Feb. 4, 2023, two days after the Pentagon issued a statement on the matter.
Biden officials held discussions with Beijing Feb. 1, 2023, about the balloon, and discussed the impact disclosing the balloon to the public could have on the relationship with China, internal State Department documents show, two Trump administration officials told Fox News Digital.
An internal State Department readout of the talks between Blinken and a top Chinese diplomat said Blinken stated that if the presence of the balloon were revealed publicly, it could have “profound implications for our relationship” with China, particularly amid efforts to stabilize the bilateral relationship with Beijing, two Trump administration officials familiar with the documents told Fox News Digital.
The readout said that the incident could also have complicated Blinken’s travel plans to China in early February 2023, if not quickly resolved. Blinken ultimately postponed the trip until June 2023.
A former Biden administration official told Fox News Digital that the State Department summoned senior Chinese diplomat Zhu Haiquan Feb. 1, 2023, so that the U.S. could notify China to remove the balloon, and issue a warning that the U.S. could take action to eliminate the balloon.
“Former Secretary Blinken advocated strongly to tell the American people about China’s rogue balloon, which is exactly what happened,” a spokesperson for the former secretary of state said in a Tuesday statement to Fox News Digital. “He has a long history of being tough on China while actually delivering results.”
Likewise, another senior State Department official also held private talks on Feb. 1, 2023, with Chinese counterparts. A readout from that discussion says that the official claimed the longer it took to mitigate the issue would only increase the likelihood that news of the balloon would become public, posing greater challenges managing the situation, the Trump administration officials said.
Allowing the Communist Chinese, a known enemy, to map our military bases and defense installations is/was treason and should be punished accordingly. The Biden family’s enrichment from the Chinese goes virtually unmentioned! Why? The millions laundered through the illegal LLC’s? The $10 million “Access Fee” given to Joe via Hunter?
Why do we have special privileges for corrupt politicians?
Really? We have/had a state department official named “Blinken”? I wonder if we had any named “Winken” or “Nod”. I thought the headline was a slur against Biden calling him “blinken” from the old children’s story.
Hmm. I guess it wouldn’t be a slur against Biden but against the story. There’s not much you can say about Biden that isn’t actually better than he really is and his son is worse. There aren’t words bad enough to be an insult to him.