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US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is postponing his visit to China after a Chinese spy balloon was detected over the US, ABC News reported today, citing its sources, BTA reports. 

According to the American media, Blinken does not want the situation to be blown up by canceling his visit, but he also does not want the incident to be a dominant topic in his meetings with representatives of the Chinese authorities.

The information was confirmed by the US State Department.

A senior US State Department official said Blinken would be ready to visit China "when conditions permit".

China with an explanation about the balloon flying near a US military base

Earlier in the day, Beijing expressed regret that the "civilian hot air balloon", as the Chinese Foreign Ministry called it, had accidentally strayed into US territory, an incident that sparked angry political reactions in Washington.

Yesterday, Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder told reporters that the government was tracking a surveillance balloon flying at a high altitude over the continental United States.

Ryder added that the balloon "travels at an altitude well above passenger air traffic and poses no military or physical threat to people on the ground."

The US military considered the possibility of bringing down the balloon over the state of Montana, but in the end, President Joe Biden decided against such action due to the danger that falling debris would pose.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton called on Blinken to cancel his visit to Beijing, and former President Donald Trump said on his social network Truth Social that the balloon should be brought down.

Earlier today, China's Foreign Ministry released a statement saying that this "balloon was ... used for civil, meteorological and other scientific purposes" and expressed regret that it had entered US airspace. 

US officials have raised the issue with Beijing through diplomatic channels and have said they are taking the case very seriously.

Reuters described the postponement of the US Secretary of State's visit to China, which was agreed in November by Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, as a potentially major blow to efforts to defuse increasingly strained Sino-US relations. 

China

Anthony Blinken