Blinken tells China spy balloon flight must ‘never happen again’

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he warned his Chinese counterpart that the spy balloon that traveled across much of the United States earlier this month “can never happen again.”

The US’s top diplomat also alerted Wang Yi during the Saturday meeting that providing lethal assistance to Russia for its war on Ukraine would bring “serious consequences.”

“There was no apology,” Blinken told NBC News’ Chuck Todd in an interview on “Meet the Press” aired Sunday.

“But what I can also tell you is this was an opportunity to speak very clearly and very directly about the fact that China sent a surveillance balloon over our territory, violating our sovereignty, violating international law. And I told him quite simply that that was unacceptable and can never happen again.”

Blinken met with Wang Saturday night at the international security conference in Munich — their first face-to-face meeting since US fighter jets downed the balloon off the South Carolina coast Feb. 4. 

At the same time, State Department spokesman Ned Price punctuated the meeting by releasing a statement saying that Beijing’s surveillance program “has been exposed to the world.”

Blinken told NBC that other countries have also been “on the receiving end of these surveillance balloons.”

The two met for about an hour at the annual security conference, a sit-down that came shortly after Wang accused the UN of being “hysterical” in shooting down the balloon, noting it was “absurd” that it violated international customs.

“There are so many balloons all over the world, so is the United States going to shoot all of them down?” Wang asked.

Blinken, in the interview, also expressed “concern” that China was planning on providing lethal military aid to Russia for its ongoing invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

“What we’ve seen over the past years is, of course, some political and rhetorical support, even some nonlethal support. But we are very concerned that China is considering providing lethal support to Russia in its aggression against Ukraine​,” America’s top diplomat said.​

“​And I made clear that that would have serious consequences in our relationship as well, something that President Biden has shared directly with President Xi on several occasions,” he said. 

Blinken wouldn’t elaborate on what kinds of support China was considering offering Russia, but said Beijing is trying to “have it both ways.”

“Publicly, they present themselves as a country striving for peace in Ukraine. But privately, as I said, we’ve seen already over these past months the provision of nonlethal assistance that does go directly to aiding and abetting Russia’s war effort,” Blinken said.

“And some further information that we are sharing today and that I think will be out there soon that indicates that they are strongly considering providing lethal assistance to Russia,” he said, adding that so far China hasn’t.

R​emarking on the two flashpoints, Blinken reiterated that Washington and Beijing must keep the lines of communication open.

“I think this is something that the world expects of us. They expect us to manage this relationship responsibly. And so it was important that we had that opportunity this evening here in Munich​,” he said. ​  

Price said in his statement that Blinken warned China about the consequences it will face in helping Russia militarily or or to evade international sanctions, but remains committed to working on the relationship. ​​

“​The ​​secretary reiterated President Biden’s statements that the United States will compete and will unapologetically stand up for our values and interests, but that we do not want conflict with the PRC and are not looking for a new Cold War. The ​​secretary underscored the importance of maintaining diplomatic dialogue and open lines of communication at all times​,” Price said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.