Blinken Might Meet With China’s FM at Munich Conference Amid Balloon Tensions

The conference will be held from Friday to Sunday

Secretary of State Antony Blinken might meet with his Chinese counterpart this week at the Munich Security Conference, which will be held from Friday to Sunday.

Blinken canceled a planned trip to China after the Pentagon announced a Chinese balloon was floating over the continental United States. Blinken called the incident a “clear violation of US sovereignty and international law,” but it was later revealed the balloon ended up in US airspace by accident due to unexpected weather.

The US still maintains the balloon was a spy device, while China insists it was a research balloon used for civilian purposes. After the US shot down the Chinese balloon on February 4, it shot down three unidentified objects. President Biden acknowledged that the unidentified objects were likely harmless weather balloons.

US officials told Axios that if Blinken meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the conference, he would likely use the opportunity to ease tensions over the balloon. China has criticized the US for shooting down the balloon and overreacting and said it hurt diplomatic progress made since Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping last November.

“What the US did has had a grave impact on the efforts and progress made by China and the US in stabilizing bilateral relations since the leaders’ meeting in Bali,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Wednesday.

After Blinken canceled his trip, US officials insisted they still wanted to maintain communications with Beijing. But they frame the dialogue as a way to “manage competition” rather than an effort to resolve issues.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.