Washington will \u201cdemonize\u201d anyone who does not \u201cdance to their tune,\u201d the Russian Foreign Ministry has said
\nAmerica\u2019s reaction to the Chinese air balloon was \u201cimpulsive\u201d and over-the-top, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday. The US shot down what it called a \u201cspy balloon\u201d last week, though China insists it was only a weather device.
\n\u201cWe assume that the Chinese side\u2019s explanations of [the incident] are sufficient and clear,\u201d Zakharova said at a briefing on Tuesday.
\nShe added that Beijing\u2019s response in this \u201cnontrivial situation\u201d was \u201cresponsible\u201d in contrast with the sensationalist response of the US government and media.
\n\u201cWashington and the American media\u2019s impulsive reaction can\u2019t be described as anything other than hysterical.\u201d she said, adding that the US continues to use \u201ccontrived reasons, or none at all, in order to slander and demonize countries who refuse to dance to their tune.\u201d
\nA Chinese unmanned airship was spotted flying over Alaska, parts of Canada, and then across the continental United States last week. On Thursday, the Pentagon said it was \u201cmost certainly launched by China\u201d for the purpose of gathering intelligence, with the media calling it a \u201cspy balloon.\u201d US Secretary of State Antony Blinken indefinitely postponed his planned visit to China on Friday.
\nBlinken called the situation \u201ca clear violation of US sovereignty and international law that undermined the purpose of the trip,\u201d in a phone call with China\u2019s director of the Central Foreign Affairs Office, Wang Yi.
\nChinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Saturday that the incident was an \u201cunintended entry\u201d of a civilian meteorological research airship caused by force majeure. The diplomat claimed that Beijing had verified and communicated the balloon\u2019s civilian nature to the US side. The spokeswoman added that \u201cSome politicians and media in the US have hyped [the incident] up to attack and smear China.\u201d
\nOn Saturday, the Pentagon sent an F-22 fighter jet to \u201csafely shoot down\u201d the balloon after it drifted out over the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n
Rt<\/p>\n
Tags\uff1aweather balloon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington will \u201cdemonize\u201d anyone who does not \u201cdance to their tune,\u201d the Russian Foreign Ministry has said America\u2019s reaction to the Chinese air balloon was \u201cimpulsive\u201d and over-the-top, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday. The US shot down what it called a \u201cspy balloon\u201d last week, though China insists it was only a weather device. \u201cWe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[2291,2060],"class_list":["post-5448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-balloon","tag-over"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5450,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5448\/revisions\/5450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}