The spy balloon crisis: a Chinese miscalculation?

• Wide Angle The shooting down of the spy balloon intensifies the Cold War between the US and China

After pulling the classic "I don't know what you're talking about", China ended up acknowledging that the balloon flying over the United States was its own.

After a grudging confirmation, she also did something no one expected:

.

In a first official statement, Beijing said it "regretted the unintentional entry of the aircraft into US airspace."

He later excused himself by saying that it

that had drifted off course.

But what was surprising in this case was that the powerful and proud second world power made its "repentance" public.

A gesture, that of

, over an altercation related to his archenemy in the new Cold War, which until now was not allowed in the coercive and aggressive diplomacy that Beijing has promoted since President Xi Jinping arrived at the power a decade ago.

This time, the Asian giant lowered its head and recognized, even if it was a momentary dramatization, that this balloon of theirs should not cross into the territory of another country.

But the apology faded very quickly.

In a second statement, Beijing changed its strategy: the Americans are exaggerated who want to instill fear with a non-existent threat and the balloon has served as an excuse to attack China.

That was the line to follow from Saturday, with Foreign Ministry spokesmen grumbling as Washington and the Western media repeated in unison that it was a Chinese spy balloon that had deliberately flown over

.

On Sunday, unsurprisingly, there was

when they woke up to the news that a missile launched by an F-22 had brought down the balloon.

"China expresses its strong dissatisfaction with the use of force to attack a civil unmanned aircraft, overreacting and seriously violating international practice. China expected a calm, professional and restrained performance, and reserves the right to react necessary", read a statement from the Chinese Ministry of Defense that resumed the old victimhood game that Beijing usually takes to get out of the pond, in this case, of violating the sovereignty of another country.

"China is a responsible nation and has always strictly abided by international law. We do not accept baseless speculation or exaggeration," insisted the head of Chinese diplomacy,

, who had a telephone conversation with Antony Blinken over the weekend. whom he will not see in person as planned this Monday because the US Secretary of State canceled his trip to Beijing due to the incident with the balloon, which has been one of the issues that have dominated the debate these days on Chinese social networks.

On Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, and on Douyin, as TikTok is known, there were many users who were ironic, making it clear that few in China really believe that the balloon reached the US by accident, but they understand that the government did not. acknowledge this because it could trigger a military response from Washington.

In networks, the discussion has been more open than in the usual propaganda channels of the Communist Party.

"Unfounded speculation and continued hype in the US cannot change the fact that this is an unexpected incident, which the Chinese side also expressed regret for," Diao Daming, an expert on US studies, told China's

newspaper .

"Some anti-China hawks, so obsessed with

and US hegemony, are doing everything they can to sabotage China-China relations."

There is a question that is difficult to answer that is circulating these days among the groups of Chinese policy analysts: why would Beijing spoil Blinken's trip with the supposed spy balloon at a time when it had lowered the tone of its diplomacy and Was he

looking for some

, especially for the sake of its economy, recently reopened to the world after three years suffering under the 'Covid zero' lockdowns?

The Pentagon said the balloon did not provide China with capabilities it did not already have with its spy satellites and that it had taken steps to prevent any important information from being recorded.

Xi Jinping Miscalculation?

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• China

• USA

• Xi Jinping