Secretary of State Antony Blinken will postpone his trip to China next week after a suspected Beijing-operated spy balloon looming over parts of Montana.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will postpone his trip to China next week following a suspected Beijing-operated spy balloon looming over parts of Montana.
"After consultations with our interagency partners, as well as with Congress, we have concluded that the conditions are not right at this moment for Secretary Blinken to travel to China," a senior State Department official said Friday on a background briefing with reporters. "From the moment this incident occurred, we have been in regular and frequent contact with our Chinese counterparts and I do anticipate that will continue," said the State Department official, who asked not to be identified to discuss a sensitive intelligence matter.
"We wanted to take care that somebody didn't get hurt or property wasn't destroyed," said the official, who noted that the balloon does not pose a threat to civil aviation because of its high altitude.
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