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China Warns of Retaliation Against US Entities in Balloon Saga

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China warned that it will retaliate against the US over violations of its sovereignty, potentially escalating a lingering dispute just as top diplomats from both nations plan to attend a security conference in Germany.

At a briefing Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin repeated Beijing’s view that the Chinese balloon downed by a US jet off the South Carolina coast this month had inadvertently floated over the country after being blown off course. He criticized the Biden administration’s decision to take it out and said the move would have consequences.

“China is strongly opposed to this and will take countermeasures against relevant US entities that have undermined our sovereignty and security to firmly safeguard our sovereignty and legitimate rights and interests,” Wang told reporters at the daily briefing.

Some of the 10 US balloons that Beijing says traveled over China since May last year passed over Xinjiang and Tibet, Wang added. Those are two regions in China’s far west where the government is accused by the US and other nations of human rights violations against minorities, charges Beijing denies.

The latest statement came just as both nations appeared to be trying to move on from the dispute. The US said Tuesday that three other objects downed by American jets over the past week served commercial purposes and weren’t used for spying.

It remains to be seen if the latest back-and-forth will prevent a meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference this week. Blinken had canceled a planned trip to Beijing this month when the initial balloon controversy erupted.

The US claims the Chinese balloon was part of a global surveillance program and it added six Chinese companies it said are linked to Beijing’s espionage program to a blacklist last week. China has insisted that the balloon was a weather-monitoring device.

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