Biden on US-China Relations

United States President Joe Biden has stated that the incident involving a Chinese balloon, which was detected and shot down over US territory, has not caused significant damage to US-China relations.

In an interview with PBS, he responded negatively to a related question. When asked to elaborate on his claims, Biden said, “I talked to them; we spoke to their team.”

Additionally, the US president noted that he had previously spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and later told him, “We are ready to compete with China, but we do not want conflict.” “And it continues to work,” Biden added.

The president also mentioned that during a discussion with the Chinese leader last summer, he warned him that if Beijing supported Russia in the Ukrainian crisis, China would lose Western investments.

The emergence of the Chinese balloon, which Washington designated as reconnaissance, led to a diplomatic dispute between the two countries; US Secretary of State Antony Blinken even postponed his planned visit to Beijing on February 5-6, accusing China of “violating US sovereignty.”

Following the balloon's destruction, Beijing lodged an official complaint and warned of potential retaliatory measures.