China warns US to suffer 'consequences' if it escalates balloon incident

BEIJING - China warned the United States on Sunday it would “bear all the consequences” if it escalated the controversy over a Chinese balloon that the US military shot down this month.

Beijing will “follow through to the end” in the event “the US insists on taking advantage of the issue”, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

A US military jet on Feb 4 shot down what Washington calls a Chinese spy balloon

after it had crossed North America. Beijing says it was an errant weather-monitoring craft.

China’s statement followed a meeting

between top diplomat Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

Mr Blinken and Mr Wang’s meeting came hours after the top Chinese diplomat took a swipe at the US, accusing it of violating international norms with

“hysterical” behaviour by shooting down the balloon

.

The balloon’s flight this month over US territory triggered an uproar in Washington and prompted Mr Blinken to

postpone a planned visit to Beijing

. That Feb 5-6 trip would have been the first by a US secretary of state to China in five years, and was seen by both sides as an opportunity to stabilise increasingly fraught ties.

“To have dispatched an advanced fighter jet

to shoot down a balloon with a missile

, such behaviour is unbelievable, almost hysterical,” Mr Wang said.

“There are so many balloons all over the world, and various countries have them. So, is the United States going to shoot all of them down?”

China reacted angrily when the US military downed the 60m balloon on Feb 4, saying it was for

monitoring weather conditions and had blown off course

. Washington said it was clearly a surveillance balloon with a massive undercarriage holding electronics.

Questions had swirled as to whether Mr Blinken and Mr Wang would use the conference in Munich as a chance to re-engage in-person, and the State Department only confirmed the hour-long meeting after it had ended.

In the interview with NBC, Mr Blinken said Mr Wang did not apologise for the balloon’s flight.

“I told him quite simply that that was unacceptable and can never happen again,” Mr Blinken said, referring to the balloon’s violation of US airspace.

“There was no apology,” he said, adding that he had not discussed with Mr Wang rescheduling his trip to China. REUTERS