US President Joe Biden has defended Beijing’s leadership, saying he believes Premier Xi wouldn’t have known about the spy balloon that drifted across the US or the surveillance gear it was carrying.
His remarks come as he expressed a desire to meet with Xi in the coming months.
“I’m hoping that over the next several months I’ll be meeting with Xi again, and talking about legitimate differences we have, but also how there are areas to get along,” Biden said on Saturday during a visit to Philadelphia.
Biden’s remarks came shortly before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in China to meet with Xi during a visit to Beijing, his first as the top US diplomat. Blinken’s Beijing visit was originally planned for February.
However, Blinken cancelled the trip at short notice after a Chinese spy balloon drifted over the United States.
Biden, who ordered US fighter jets to shoot down the balloon over the Atlantic after it had traversed the entire country, including time spent loitering over sensitive military bases, downplayed that incident on Saturday.
Benefit of the doubt
The President suggested top Chinese leaders didn’t know of the balloon or that it was carrying sophisticated eavesdropping and surveillance gear.
“I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional,” Biden said.
Relations between the governments of the world’s two largest economies are strained over a number of issues.
The US has pressured China over its tacit support for Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s threats against self-governing Taiwan.
Ongoing trade disputes between the two countries have also caused rising tensions.
Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, have both viewed China as US’s greatest geopolitical challenge. China, in turn, has accused the US of hegemonic ambitions.
-with AAP
