“The United States entertains public opinion and Western media by exaggerating the threat of Chinese balloons and UFO sightings everywhere to avoid accounting for the chemical train derailment in Ohio, gas its operation to destroy the pipeline Nord Stream and its aggressive moves to expand its military power around China”.
A senior Beijing Foreign Ministry official expressed this view on Wednesday. He is an experienced diplomat who has made a career in Latin America. He says he is fed up with what is, to him, a circus that Washington has set up around the crisis between the two world superpowers, the latest of many that began with alleged Chinese spy balloons that spied on the US. Crossed and was shot down by US forces off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February.
“I will not go into whether it was an aircraft equipped with an advanced surveillance system or not (China still officially says it was a weather analysis device). But the violation of US airspace was an accident. deviated from. Due to meteorological factors which is not dependent on anyone. That’s why China apologized. But what I don’t understand is what is done to see the sky so much these days. We all Have spied on each other in many ways. By air, sea and land. That has always been normal and we didn’t make it public,” defends the Chinese official.
During the daily press briefing at the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, spokesman Wang Wenbin said that since May 2022, more than 10 US balloons have flown in their airspace without permission. ,” said Wang, who warned that his country would take action against “US entities that undermine Chinese sovereignty,” in response to six Chinese companies Washington put on its blacklist a few days ago for allegedly being linked to the surveillance program. Was added for. Balloons from Beijing.
Both the official discourse, as well as the one launched by the Chinese diplomat mentioned at the beginning, requesting anonymity, is similar to the narrative being told these days by regime-controlled media outlets. “US mobilizes allies to join mad chorus of China threat,” read an editorial headline in one of the loudest propaganda channels, the Global Times newspaper.
“America’s balloon paranoia deepened as it shot down three more unidentified flying objects and mobilized its allies including Japan, South Korea and NATO to spin the narrative of the China threat. But the longer the propaganda continues, the more The only shameful conclusion would be this staged farce,” the editorial continued.
Those in Beijing insist that Washington is trying to divert attention from really important issues. And, above all, those in charge of the Asian giant seem concerned that not enough is being said about the “military web” they believe the United States is weaving around China.
In January, the US Marines opened a new base in Guam, their first in 70 years on the western Pacific island, that will house 5,000 Marines tasked with detecting and combating threats in the region. Not far away, in Australia, they welcome Washington’s plan to deploy more military assets on their soil.
Earlier this month, the United States signed an extension of its defense pact with the Philippines to allow American troops access to four more bases in the Southeast Asian country, something that could threaten Beijing’s efforts in the disputed South China Sea. Will facilitate greater monitoring of movements, especially in its vicinity. Taiwan.
The US military can now operate out of a total of nine bases in the Philippines, positioning it in a critical position in case Beijing attacks Taiwan and Washington decides to launch itself to defend the autonomous island that China considers a Considers a separate province. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin personally signed that latest defense deal in Manila.
Prior to traveling to the Philippines, Austin was in Seoul to discuss increased US military and nuclear support. A few weeks ago, facing a continuing threat from North Korea, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said he might ask its ally the United States to deploy strategic nuclear weapons on its territory. The comments came at the same time that Washington plans to spread naval units to Japan’s Okinawa islands by 2026, equipping them with missiles and lighter equipment to “deter China’s armed forces”.
Japan already hosts 18,000 US Marines, the largest concentration outside the United States. The vast majority of these units are based on the main island of Okinawa, part of a chain that stretches about 100 kilometers from Taiwan along the shores of the East China Sea, with rumors emerging every few weeks that representatives there will be sent there this year. Have a visit from the Speaker of the House, Republican Kevin McCarthy.
His predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, had already traveled to the autonomous island last summer. A provocation that, for Beijing, crossed a red line and unleashed its fury with an unprecedented invasion simulation around Taiwan. From the other world power he warned that the reaction to McCarthy’s visit to Taipei could be more “tremendous”.
One of the planes that has boarded has been the chief of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi, director of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, Beijing’s most powerful tool in foreign policy. Wang began a European tour that would take her to France, Italy, Hungary and Russia, where she is scheduled to meet with Vladimir Putin.
He also participated in the Munich Security Conference. There he met Saturday night with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who canceled a scheduled visit to Beijing two weeks ago because of the Chinese spy balloon crisis. The conflict has fueled the thaw between the two world superpowers that was tested by President Xi Jinping and Joe Biden during their meeting last November on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali.
