China advises US to stop doing such ridiculous things: Beijing's top diplomat on balloon row

Beijing's top diplomat Wang Yi on Saturday made critical comments against the United States for shooting down Chinese spy balloon by advising the US to "stop doing such ridiculous things out of domestic political calculation"

He said, "balloon" was a civilian unmanned airship, which was blown into US airspace due to a strong westerly wind and China requested the US to handle it calmly, professionally through communication with China. "Regretfully, the US disregarded those facts, deployed advanced fighter jets and shot down a 'balloon' with missiles," he stated.

"Such action is absurd, hysterical and pure abuse of military force." He said that it was an apparent violation of international norms, in particular the principle of the Chicago Convention, or the Convention on International Civil Aviation.

The US shot down the giant balloon, which China claimed to be a civilian airship used for research mainly meteorological, on February 4 after it hovered over the country for a week.

"We advise the US to stop doing such ridiculous things out of domestic political calculation. We also urge the US to show sincerity, correct its mistake, and face up to and address its damages to China-US relations," Wang said.

"There are many balloons from many countries in the sky. Do you want to down each and every one of them?" said Wang. He also urged the US "not to do such preposterous things simply to divert attention from its own domestic problems."

The balloon row comes at a time when the tensions between Washington and Beijing are high on issues ranging from Taiwan to South China sea, from human rights in western Xinjiang region to clampdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong. China's support to Russia in its invasion of Ukraine has only added to growing tensions between the two global superpowers although the two countries have cooperation on trade and counter-terrorism.

The incident forced United States secretary of state Antony Blinken's planned trip to Beijing to cancel it.