WEB DESK
With the tension rising between US and China over the balloon row, the global community is in a fix over this dispute. The latest episode in the series happened on Saturday with the meeting of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s Foreign affairs minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich, the first high-level meeting since the balloon dispute. Mr Blinken said, they would not stand for any violation of their sovereignty and that this irresponsible act must never again occur. Mr Wang, on his part, called the episode a political farce manufactured by the US to block and suppress China by all means.
To this date China denies that it was a spy balloon, even as the US continues to disclose more details in support of their allegation. The way both Beijing and Washington have reacted to each other since this incident has come under close scrutiny by the global community as the world grapples with the incident’s implications for national security and geopolitical stability. It has worked in deepening distrust among those wary of China or the US, and also making it difficult for both Washington and Beijing to close the gap between them.
For the world, this has raised anxieties over the reach of Chinese espionage, as governments scramble to reassess what they know of China’s surveillance capabilities. China has yet to divulge details backing up its claim that the balloon was a civilian meteorological airship. This has only raised more questions, and made people sceptical even more.