US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed a visit to China which was scheduled for February 5-6 over an alleged Chinese "spy balloon" which has been recently detected in US airspace. Beijing explained that it is a weather device that had deviated from its planned route.

"Looking at this from outside the Biden administration, it seems like there was indecision as to how to respond to the balloon," Ross Feingold, a Taipei-based political risk analyst, told Sputnik.

"Administration officials were made available to the media on Thursday to explain some of the internal discussions that resulted in the decision not to shoot down the balloon. A day later, the Biden administration decides to postpone Secretary of State Blinken’s trip to China. There will be many members of Congress who question why the Biden team didn’t have a tougher response earlier," he continued.

The bizarre incident has eventually disrupted the Biden administration's plans to hold the high-profile talks in Beijing. The Pentagon has been tracking the balloon – the size of three buses – for a few days but decided to not shoot it down since it was evaluted not to pose an intelligence threat, as per US media.

Still, the Republicans see the Chinese airship as no trifle matter: GOP lawmakers immediately demanded answers from the Biden administration about the Chinese device floating over the northern part of the US. They specifically lashed out at President Joe Biden over his apparent indecisiveness and inaction.

"China’s brazen disregard for US sovereignty is a destabilizing action that must be addressed, and President Biden cannot be silent. I am requesting a Gang of Eight briefing," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted late Thursday.

The "Gang of Eight" is a group of Republican and Democrat congressional leaders from both the House and Senate who are briefed by the US Intelligence Community.

China refuted the claims of the suspected surveillance balloon and explained that it was in fact a civilian airship intended for meteorological research.

"Affected by the westerly wind and with limited self-control ability, the airship seriously deviated from the scheduled route," China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement as translated by the US press. "China regrets that the airship strayed into the United States due to force majeure. China will continue to maintain communication with the US to properly handle the unexpected situation."

Beijing urged Washington to remain cool-headed but nonetheless, Blinken's visit was postponed. A senior state department official said that the US noticed China's statement of regret but the presence of the balloon in the US air space is a "clear violation of sovereignty and international law."

"The Biden administration’s foreign policy team still seems to believe that high-level dialogue with China is important even when relations have soured, so, there’s probably some disappointment as well that there won’t be a chance for a face-to-face meeting," Feingold said.

If there were any hopes by the Biden administration that the meeting would result in agreements to resume dialogue on certain issues (such as the dialogues that China paused in retaliation for House Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last August), that’s off for now. It’s possible that the Biden administration will continue to talk to China about rescheduling for a later date, though it’s too soon to speculate when that might be.

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https://sputniknews.com/20230203/more-than-hot-air-how-bizarre-incident-popped-washingtons-china-plans-1106959865.html

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