Joe Biden expressed concern on Wednesday February 8 to ease the rekindled tensions with Beijing after the United States shot down a Chinese balloon which they accused of espionage.

"We are going to compete fully with China, but we are not looking for conflict," he assured in an interview broadcast on the PBS channel, believing that this case had not caused relations to suffer a severe blow. between the two superpowers.

Earlier in the day, his spokesperson accused China of having deployed a "fleet of balloons intended for spy operations" around the world in recent years.

These aircraft, "observed over countries on five continents", "violated their sovereignty", which prompted the United States to engage in "discussions with (their) allies and partners", had indicated to the press. Karine Jean-Pierre.

Already under Trump

The flight over American territory by this balloon captivated the country for several days, before its destruction on Saturday above the coast of South Carolina.

To Republicans criticizing supposed inaction for several days, the Biden administration countered by explaining that acting sooner would have posed a risk to the population, as the trajectory of the debris could not be controlled.

U.S. officials further said the decision to wait to shoot it down provided "a tremendous opportunity to better understand and study" the craft.

Washington has since assured that China was not at its first attempt, and that Beijing had sent three aircraft for brief incursions into American skies during Donald Trump's presidency, and already one at the start of Joe's term. Biden.

China, for its part, strongly condemned the destruction of the balloon, according to it a "civilian aircraft used for research purposes, mainly meteorological", which had "involuntarily" entered American airspace.

"It was an irresponsible act and in response we acted responsibly and prudently in order to protect our interests", justified on Wednesday the head of the American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, during a press conference alongside the secretary general. of NATO Jens Stoltenberg.

He recalled that the US military was continuing its work of collecting debris from the balloon off the coast of South Carolina.

"Vigilance"

Jens Stoltenberg, for his part, expressed the concern of NATO countries over these supposed espionage activities by China, stressing that Beijing had invested massively in recent years to acquire new military capabilities.

"We've also seen an increase in spy activity from China in Europe. They're using satellites, the internet and, as we saw over the United States, balloons," he said. calling for "constant vigilance".

According to the daily Washington Post, citing unidentified American officials, this Chinese spy program is partly directed from the island of Hainan (south).

Spy balloons have been used to monitor military sites in Japan, India and Taiwan, the newspaper adds.

"Find me a single world leader willing to swap places with Xi Jinping...I can't find one," Joe Biden also told PBS.

"This man has huge problems (...) He has an economy that does not work very well," the Democrat said again.

With AFP

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