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China’s most senior diplomat has described the shooting down of a balloon by the US as “absurd and hysterical”, as well as an abuse of the use of force.
Speaking on stage at the Munich security conference on Saturday, Wang Yi said: “It does not show the US is strong; on the contrary it shows it is weak”. The foreign affairs director said he believed the shooting down was part of an attempt to divert attention from the domestic problems of the Biden administration.
He asked the US: “There are many balloons in the sky. Do you want to down each and every one of them?”
China has insisted the balloon was a civilian non-military instrument which had been blown off course.
Wang also said China was preparing to table a position paper on Ukraine that would underline the principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty. It would also state that nuclear war must never be fought, but Wang said that hyping security threats elevated the risk of miscalculation. He said China opposed the cold-war mentality and blocs.
The paper would say “legitimate security concerns had to be taken seriously”, he said, in a reference to Moscow’s concerns about the possible expansion of Nato into neighbouring Ukraine.
