The diplomatic dispute between United States and China was intensified by the balloon which flew over North American airspace before being shot down. Beijing accused the White House and the Pentagon of an “overreaction” and the “indiscriminate use of military force”, warning of damage to bilateral relations. Joe Biden replied at a press conference: “We made it clear to China what we were going to do. And there was no going back.”
The US Secretary of StateAntony Blinken, warned his counterpart, Wang Yi that the balloon would be shot down, after defining that its fall would not be over populated areas: its remains were rescued off the coast of South Carolina. “If it had been an American airship over China, I can only imagine Beijing’s response,” they justify themselves in Washington. White House spokesman John Kirby said the United States was able to study the balloon and hope to gain valuable intelligence on its operations. The head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad), General Glen VanHerck, said the aircraft was able to maneuver taking advantage of different wind directions, and that the balloon’s route appeared to have been deliberately planned.
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An amphibious landing ship, the USS Carter Hall, is in charge of supervising the search for debris from the balloon. The United States is determined to go in depth with the investigation of the balloon, which at Langley, CIA headquarters, they suggest could be a ruse to calculate the White House’s response time to a possible attack. Which in any case puts Americans on alert, in the midst of tensions between the two governments on various issues, including taiwan, trade and human rights. This prompted Blinken to postpone his visit to Beijing, scheduled for last weekend, while he reassess the growing Chinese war challenge.
China for its part is victimized, insists that the shooting down of the balloon casts doubt on “the sincerity of the United States in stabilizing and improving Sino-US relations”s.” But it would have an army of spy balloons: Yoshihiko Isozaki, Japan’s undersecretary of the cabinet, noted that a flying object believed to be Chinese and similar to the one shot down by the United States has been seen at least twice over northern Japan since 2020.
Written
The tensions are confirmed by the leak of a memo written by a four-star American general who assured that his “intuition” indicates that his country would be at war with China in 2025 as a result of a conflict in the Strait of taiwan. The analysis by the head of the US Air Mobility Command (AMC), General Mike Minihan, was the latest prediction of a Chinese military invasion of Taiwan, sparking a debate about the country’s readiness for such a challenge.
The Chinese government claims Taiwan as a province, and its leader, Xi Jinping, is bent on what he calls “reunification,” by force if necessary. It is a prospect that the Taiwanese government and people vehemently reject. A dead end that has fueled tensions: Beijing’s military is getting bigger and increasing its coercive attack and harassment on Taiwan.
“I hope to be wrong. My gut tells me we will fight in 2025,” Minihan wrote.
“Xi’s team, reason and opportunity are all aligned by 2025,” the general added, in line with the director general of Taiwan’s national security office and its defense minister. Minihan recommended in tune, greater training and integration of the AMC and joint forces, to “deter and, if necessary, defeat china”. Minihan’s memo was dismissed by several analysts as offering no evidence, but not a few in Washington share her hunch.
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