Opinion | US China-bashers dramatized balloon incident into a Hollywood blockbuster

By Augustus K. Yeung

INTRODUCTION

Hollywood blockbusters had been over playing out of fashion. Little wonder did the world expect that a new Hollywood-styled blockbuster was about to be re-echoed. It did.

While it goes against the grain that the "spy" balloon incident would turn out to be an international incident, the Republican Senators thought this issue could be manhandled to become a situation that would put the US president between a rock and a hard place, criticizing him for being indecisive and whatever.

This old and fragile US president, whom they are trying to belittle, was in fact a seasoned politician which has a wonderful history of diplomatically defeating one Russian top diplomat amid the Cold War…

Now, if we compare this upmanship of Joe Biden, the Cold War era hero junior politician with this current silly balloon issue, what was now happening before their eyes was all smokes without wildfire. Time will crush this trumped up "crisis".

And, situation will eventually dictate that Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State would resume his China visit.

The following, though, is a colorful description of the scenario played out in Washington, the world's stage, and the busy-body Republican characters.

China has strongly protested at the shooting down of its meteorological balloon that had strayed into US airspace "completely accidentally".

A US military fighter jet shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, a week after it first entered US airspace.

"China clearly asked the US to handle this properly in a calm, professional and restrained manner," China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "The US has insisted on using force, obviously overreacting."

"Although China explained, clearly and unambiguously, that the high-altitude balloon spotted flying over the continental United States was a civilian balloon used for meteorological purposes and that its entry into US airspace was unintended, the US is still using the incident to justify the postponement of the planned visit to China of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken."

But the balloon is an excuse, not the cause of the postponement. The true cause lies in US domestic politics. US President Joe Biden said he had issued an order on Wednesday to take down this balloon, but the Pentagon had recommended waiting until it could be done over the sea. Republic opponents in Congress still argue he failed to act quickly enough.

That reflects the struggle between the two parties and how public demonstrations of which party is tougher on China has become part of their feuding, hindering the world's largest developed country from bettering relations with the world's largest developing country. By hyping up the balloon as being "a massive surveillance balloon ", some US media outlets have provided the excuse for that political animosity toward China to be intensified -- as the two parties are already jockeying for position with their eyes on presidential election in 2024.

As the Foreign Ministry said in an earlier statement, China respects the decision of the US side to postpone Blinken's visit, but the fact that the latter's decision is based on some US media outlet's hyping-up of the issue plus the fierce quarreling between the two US parties raises doubts about whether the US is sincere in claiming it wants to put bilateral relations back on track.

Since Biden agreed that it was important to maintain contact and communication at all levels in his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bali ahead of the G20 Summit in November, either the US government lacks sincerity, or it lacks the capability to do so given the anti-China sentiment that prevails in Washington, which makes the Sino-US relationships extremely fragile, as the loudest voices are always the most unfriendly ones.

China cherishes its relationships with the US, and its goodwill should be echoed with goodwill instead of such dirty tricks that seek to make the country a political football in the rancorous power struggle between the two US parties. (Source: China Daily/MDT)

CONCLUSION

When Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker made a "crazy" visit to Taiwan, provoking Beijing's fiery reaction by converging an unprecedented and unmet scale of fire power, the whole world was wondering what was going to happen next.

Fortunately, after the hurly-burly, the storm over the South China Sea settled down, leaving the blue ocean waves to enjoy their rides without being pushed up and down by battleships on both sides, which could be disastrous.

When the two ministers of defense met in Singapore at the annual Shangri-la Dialogue, their counterparts of Southeast Asian member states felt good about the touch of decency and politeness, although both defense ministers gave clashing keynote speeches at the summit in which they accused the other side of jeopardizing peace in the Asia-Pacific.

So the world thought that it was about time that Washington and Beijing would sit down and hold talks to manage their differences.

In context, Antony Blinken announced his planned visit to Beijing this weekend, which was unexpectedly foiled by the dramatic "alleged spy balloon" episode.

For about a week, the balloon had wandered at high altitudes from Alaska to North Carolina, giving the nosy news outlets substance to choreograph a noisy narrative that would outshine any Hollywood fictional blockbuster.

While most of the American civilians were amused, and the US military remained perturbed, the Republic senators were busy agitating the public and bashing China, turning the incident into an international drama.

Expectedly, the incident did not play out as the Republic senators had hoped for, but they have continued to find fault with the President Joe Biden, a democrat.

As they were busy arguing and defending, the Chinese were amused, too, to see the US party rivals foolishly played out the American party politics.

The balloon row illustrates that US-China rivalry won't be quietly put off – unless and until Biden clinches the 2024 presidential election with a win and a kiss.

The author is a freelance writer; formerly Adjunct Lecturer, taught MBA Philosophy of Management, and International Strategy, and online columnist of 3-D Corner (HKU SPACE), University of Hong Kong.

 

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:

Opinion | Blinken Visit and the Alleged Spy Balloon

Opinion | Blinken visit signals US damage control efforts over China-US rivalry