😠 Throwbacks Headlines 2023: Beijing had urged calm while it established the ‘facts’ before a statement on Friday morning said the balloon was a weather research device that had ‘deviated far from its planned course’.

By Ronny Reyes For Dailymail.Com
Published: 19:59 EST, 3 February 2023
Updated: 21:07 EST, 3 February 2023
👁️ The Source Is Right Here!!

The Chinese foreign ministry said it regretted that the balloon had mistakenly entered US airspace. Republican leaders and former President Donald Trump had led calls for the balloon to be show down.

Following the balloon’s sighting, the US canceled Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s long-planned trip to China.

The trip was to feature a landmark meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, on a trip President Biden and Xi announced the visit during their own high-stakes summit meeting in Bali in November.

‘We do acknowledge, we note the PRC statement of regret,’ a senior State Department said Friday when announcing the decision.

‘But again, the presence of this balloon in our airspace is clearly unacceptable and a clear violation of our sovereignty. And our clear assessment was that under these current conditions, it wouldn’t be constructive to visit Beijing at this time.’

Blinken ‘postponed’ his planned trip ‘following the detection of a suspected spy balloon over the United States, which Beijing has claimed is a civilian airship which blew off course.’
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