Ben Rhodes, the former diplomatic adviser to Democratic President Barack Obama took the opportunity to poke fun: "What a moment. None of us shall ever forget where we were when we learned the news of The Balloon, nor forget the harrowing victory that was won in the final moments of The Battle of The Balloon," he tweeted.
His target was the near-hysterical reaction of some Republican leaders when it was revealed that a Chinese surveillance balloon, then above Montana, was flying over American territory. This hysteria did not subside after an F-22 fighter jet shot down the balloon on Saturday, February 4, over the Atlantic Ocean, in American territorial waters. Its destruction led to a furious reaction from Beijing.
This politicization is bad news. Until now, the China issue has been the subject of bipartisan consensus in Washington, a rarity in the current volatile climate between the two major US parties. The Republican blame for the Democratic administration's supposed timidness certainly played a role in Joe Biden's decision to indefinitely cancel Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Beijing, originally scheduled for February 6.
Distended and yet necessary links
The principle of this trip was decided during the first meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Bali on November 15, 2022, on the sidelines of the G20 summit. It came after months of tension, fueled in particular by a spectacular visit to Taiwan – an island that Beijing wants to link to mainland China by all means – made in August by Democrat Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi was then the speaker of the House of Representatives.
We will probably have to wait many months to understand the reasons for the strange odyssey of this balloon. Officially carrying meteorological surveys, it apparently escaped Chinese control without them deeming it appropriate to warn the United States. Nevertheless, as experts wonder about the observation capacities of the balloon compared to more traditional spy satellites, this event underlines how much the relationship between the two great powers can be hijacked by poor political calculations and raised tensions.
The balloon incident is reminiscent of the already disastrous impact of the late January disclosure of an alarmist internal memo by the head of the US Air Force's Air Mobility Command, General Michael Minihan. "I hope I'm wrong. My gut tells me we will fight in 2025," he wrote, speculating about a conflict over Taiwan.
This sort of commotion should be avoided. The conflict that Russia has unleashed by attacking Ukraine is already destabilizing enough for the world. In Bali, the three hours of discussions between the two presidents allowed them to begin to rebuild strained but necessary ties. Their two countries have everything to gain by finding ways to engage in dialogue while fiercely defending their interests, which is the goal of good diplomacy. The shared challenges are too numerous, from fighting pandemics to combating climate change, for either country to hide behind mistrust or even hostility.