Blinken postpones trip to Beijing after Chinese spy balloon spotted over US, officials say

(CNN) —

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed his upcoming trip to China in response to the flying of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the United States, according to two US officials. The postponement marks a significant new phase in the tensions between Washington and Beijing.

The Chinese foreign ministry claimed Friday that the suspected Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon flying over the continental United States is a “civilian airship” used mainly for weather research that deviated from its planned course.

The statement, by a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, is the first admission that the airship originated in China since the Pentagon revealed it was tracking the balloon on Thursday.

“It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes. Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure,” the Chinese foreign ministry said.

“The Chinese side will continue communicating with the US side and properly handle this unexpected situation caused by force majeure,” the statement added, using a legalistic term to mean circumstances beyond China’s control.

A US military official said the incident is serious because of the “audacity” of the Chinese government, rather than any intelligence gain. While existing satellites are able to gather similar amounts of information, the timing of the spy balloon – right before the planned Blinken trip – and the fact that this is right over the continental US contribute to the seriousness of this moment, the official said.

The top US diplomat’s trip to the Chinese capital was due to follow up President Joe Biden’s meeting with Xi Jinping in Bali late last year.

“On China, as you know, President Biden, President Xi had a very open, candid conversation during the last G20 meeting in Bali, and they spoke about our intentions,” Blinken said at a news conference in Washington in January. “President Biden shared our intentions and our priorities, and we got some sense of that from President Xi as well.”

“These lines of communication, starting with the presidents but also including many of us, are vitally important,” Blinken said at the time.

Earlier this week the State Department summoned China’s charge d’affaires in Washington, Xu Xueyuan, “to deliver a very clear and stark message” regarding the discovery of the spy balloon, a second US official tells CNN.

The balloon – which is the size of three busses – was spotted over Montana where 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles are buried in missile silos at Malmstrom Air Force Base.

Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said the US government has been tracking the balloon for several days as it made its way over the northern United States, adding it was “traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.”

A senior US defense official said senior military officials had advised Biden not to shoot it down due to fear the debris could pose a safety threat to people on the ground.

“We are confident that this high-altitude surveillance balloon belongs to the [People’s Republic of China],” the defense official said. “Instances of this activity have been observed over the past several years, including prior to this administration.”

While the balloon’s current flight path carries it over “a number of sensitive sites,” the official said it does not present a significant intelligence gathering risk. The balloon is assessed to have “limited additive value” from an intelligence collection perspective, the official added.

Powered by a solar array

Sources familiar with the matter tell CNN that is appears that the Chinese spy balloon movements appear to rely primarily on the jet stream, allowing Beijing to predict its likely path.

China can control the surveillance balloon to an extent, for example, by turning on and off the surveillance gear inside of it, the sources said. The fact that China does have some control over the balloon’s capabilities is why the US government has raised their concerns with Beijing about it, the sources said.

The balloon’s surveillance equipment appears to be powered by a solar array, one US official said, which would provide the system with a reliable source of power at high altitude. But the solar array does not appear to be connected to any type of motor that would allow China to steer the balloon, the official added.

Pentagon officials said they did not believe the balloon had surveillance or intelligence-gathering capabilities above and beyond Chinese spy satellites in low earth orbit, but unlike satellites that pass rapidly over a location every 90 minutes, a spy balloon can loiter over a spot and gather more of a “pattern of life” of a particular site, the official said.

In the past, the US has simply allowed balloons like this to waft away, without taking any action or publicizing their presence over the US, the sources said. It is also not the first time a surveillance balloon has appeared over the United States.

The US official said there were similar incidents with suspected Chinese surveillance balloons over Hawaii and Guam in recent years. On Thursday, a senior defense official said, “Instances of this activity have been observed over the past several years, including prior to this administration.”

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Blinken postpones trip to Beijing after Chinese spy balloon spotted over US, officials say"