China urges calm after U.S. shoots down suspected spy balloon

BEIJING — China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning urged some sides to stay calm aft the U.S. said it changeable down what it called a Chinese spy balloon.

"What I privation to stress regarding this unexpected mishap is that some sides, particularly the U.S., should stay calm," Mao said successful Mandarin, according to a CNBC translation.

She was speaking astatine the archetypal of the ministry's regular property conferences aft U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken indefinitely postponed his travel to Beijing pursuing quality that a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon was flying implicit the United States.

Blinken was primitively expected to sojourn Beijing Sunday and Monday, though the U.S. had offered fewer authoritative details and the Chinese broadside ne'er confirmed the trip. The U.S. subject shot down the balloon implicit the weekend.

China has called the balloon a "civilian unmanned airship" and said it was chiefly conducting upwind probe earlier it was blown disconnected course.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao emphasized the accidental quality of the balloon's formation path, and said China has mislaid power of different specified vehicles, according to her question-and-answer league Monday with reporters.

When asked who oregon what benignant of institution made the balloon, Mao declined to stock immoderate details.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer "revealed that we bash cognize that erstwhile the balloon was exposed to the public, China attempted to maneuver the balloon to permission the U.S. arsenic soon arsenic they could," a Senate Democrats property merchandise said Sunday.

When asked to corroborate this detail, Mao said China's connection with the U.S. "always works hard to grip things responsibly."

She said again that the lawsuit was accidental, but puts the U.S. to the trial successful presumption of however it tin grip crises and stabilize U.S.-China relations. Mao reiterated China's calls for "mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation“ successful the bilateral relationship.

Plans for Blinken to sojourn Beijing were announced successful November aft Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden had their archetypal in-person gathering during the Biden administration.

News of the gathering and expectations that Blinken would sojourn Beijing had accrued hopes for much stableness successful the tense U.S.-China relationship.

Ahead of Blinken's visit, U.S. Department of State spokesperson Ned Price told reporters Thursday that 1 extremity of high-level conversations with Beijing was "responsible management" of the world's "most consequential" bilateral relationship. Such talks, helium added, are meant to guarantee that "competition doesn't veer into conflict."