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The Chinese government didn’t want to hear it.
After the U.S. destroyed the suspected spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday, China declined Washington’s request for a secure call between Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his counterpart, the Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
The aim of the call, it appears, was to ratchet down tensions and open further avenues for dialogue after the spy balloon saga in an effort to “responsibly manage the relationship” between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China, or PRC, said Pentagon press secretary Gen. Pat Ryder.
“Lines between our militaries are particularly important in moments like this,” he said. “Unfortunately, the PRC has declined our request. Our commitment to open lines of communication will continue.”
The U.S. used an F-22 Raptor to shoot down the balloon with a Sidewinder missile early in the afternoon on Saturday. Tensions didn’t chill after the balloon splashed into the Atlantic Ocean.
Before the Biden administration shared its decision to shoot the balloon out of the sky, China claimed it was a “civilian airship” used for weather research and its appearance in U.S. airspace was an “unintended entry.” Beijing said it aimed to continue its dialogue with U.S. officials about its appearance in American skies.
Once the balloon was destroyed, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quick to share “strong dissatisfaction and protest over the use of force” by the U.S.
“The Chinese side had clearly requested the U.S. side to handle the situation properly in a calm, professional and restrained manner,” the ministry’s statement said, calling the administration’s decision an “obvious over reaction and a serious violation of international customary practice.”
“The Chinese side will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the companies concerned, while reserving the right to make further necessary responses,” the statement said.
A senior administration official responded to China’s statement soon after it came out, telling NBC News on Saturday that the balloon was used for surveillance and “purposely traversed” the U.S. and Canada “and we are confident it was seeking to monitor sensitive military sites.”
The inflatable spy machine entered U.S. airspace on Jan. 28 north of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska before entering Canada a few days later. It re-entered the U.S. the next day in northern Idaho before slowly making its way across the U.S., coming in close proximity to multiple American nuclear sites.
Navy divers are now working to recover pieces of the balloon that will then be analyzed at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.
U.S. officials said that it is unlikely that China uncovered much information through its balloon’s surveillance that they would not have already known through its use of satellites.
Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command, told reporters Monday that the U.S. had in fact waited to destroy the balloon because they were gathering intelligence on the inflatable’s capabilities.
“This gave us the opportunity to assess what they were actually doing, what kind of capabilities existed on the balloon, what kind of transmission capabilities existed,” he said, “and I think you’ll see in the future that the timeframe was well worth its value to collect over.”
