Blinken Cancels China Trip over Balloon

The errant Chinese balloon was spotted over Montana

All the talk in the last 48 hours has been about a gigantic white balloon the size of three buses that was spotted over Billings, Montana.

The Pentagon sent up F-22 fighters to check it out and later identified it as a Chinese spy balloon which raised even more eyebrows.

But that large floating blob caused US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to cancel his highly anticipated trip to Beijing on the weekend.

Why?

Because the Chinese authorities claimed the civilian weather balloon used for meteorological readings blew off course and mistakenly entered US territory. For the record is also crossed British Columbia from north to south.

The US side didn't buy China's reasoning and Blinken immediately kyboshed his trip.

For the Chinese to claim the balloon is civilian is laughable as civilians would not be allowed to even launch weather balloons like this in China. Besides, US atmospheric sciences professors say it is preposterous the Chinese would not know the balloon would end up in North America.

The balloon was flying at 60,000 feet, the height at which many commercial airliners fly, which is how someone spotted it in the first place -- on a plane.

The incident caused China experts to research all they could about weather balloons and modes of espionage -- this is not the first time a giant balloon has been used for spying -- and a lot of questions as to why the balloon was not just shot down (it is too high up and there were concerns about debris scattering everywhere).

However there is the option of shooting it down later when it is above water, probably the Atlantic Ocean, where the balloon seems to be heading.

Blinken was supposed to fly to Beijing 

As China expert Bill Bishop points out, this should really be the time Blinken goes to China to have a dialogue about this incident, but China's explanation for the errant balloon did not make it conducive for him to go to Beijing for a friendly chat. 

On Friday Blinken called Wang Yi, China's top foreign affairs official to cancel the trip and said he would come "when conditions allow".

Wang's response included the line: "China is a responsible country and has always strictly abided by international law," according to the Chinese foreign ministry's website.

Sino-US relations sour over a balloon... and that will be recorded in the history books.