The United States attempted to contact China’s communist regime after its military shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon off the South Carolina coast on Feb. 4, but Beijing refused to take the call.
The Pentagon said on Feb. 7 that it requested a phone call between U.S. defense secretary Lloyd Austin and Chinese defense minister Wei Fenghe after the balloon downing, but the request had been turned down.
“Lines between our militaries are particularly important in moments like this. Unfortunately, the [People’s Republic of China] has declined our request,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement.
Ryder stated that Washington remains committed to maintaining open lines of communication with Beijing.
PRC Explanation ‘Lacked Any Credibility’
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the U.S. move “a clear overreaction,” claiming that the balloon was a civilian airship that had been blown off-course and posed no threat to national security.“This surveillance balloon purposely traversed the United States and Canada. And we are confident it was seeking to monitor sensitive military sites,” the official told reporters on Feb. 4.
“Its route over the United States, near many potential sensitive sites, contradicts the PRC government’s explanation that it was a weather balloon,” he added.
“They successfully took it down, and I want to compliment our aviators who did it,” he said, adding that they will “have more to report on this a little later.”
The balloon, described by U.S. officials as a “high altitude surveillance balloon,” was first spotted on Feb. 1 above an airfield in Montana, one of three U.S. states where the nuclear missile fields are based.
It drifted over Asheville, North Carolina, and then near Charlotte on the morning of Feb. 4.
The presence of the balloon has exacerbated the already tense relations between the United States and China and prompted U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken to postpone a planned trip to Beijing earlier this month.
A second Chinese balloon was spotted flying above Latin America on Feb. 3.