Page 28 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2023 Edition

28 China Urges Calm In Spy Balloon Case
Politics
China urges calm after
U.S. shoots down
suspected spy balloon
CNBC
BEIJING — China’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning urged
both sides to remain calm after the U.S.
said it shot down what it called a Chinese
spy balloon.
“What I want to emphasize regarding
this unexpected accident is that both
sides, especially the U.S., should remain
calm,” Mao said in Mandarin, according
to a CNBC translation.
She was speaking at the first of the
ministry’s daily press conferences after
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
indefinitely postponed his trip to Beijing
following news that a suspected Chinese
surveillance balloon was flying over the
United States.
Blinken was originally expected to visit
Beijing Sunday and Monday, although
the U.S. had offered few official details
and the Chinese side never confirmed the
trip. The U.S. military shot down the
balloon over the weekend.
China has called the balloon a “civilian
unmanned airship” and said it was
primarily conducting weather research
before it was blown off course.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao
emphasized the accidental nature of the
balloon’s flight path, and said China has
lost control of other such vehicles,
according to her question-and-answer
session Monday with reporters.
When asked who or what kind of
company made the balloon, Mao
declined to share any details.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
“revealed that we do know that once the
balloon was exposed to the public, China
attempted to maneuver the balloon to
leave the U.S. as soon as they could,” a
Senate Democrats press release said
Sunday.
When asked to confirm this detail, Mao
said China’s communication with the
U.S. “always works hard to handle things
responsibly.”
She said again that the event was
accidental, but puts the U.S. to the test in
terms of how it can handle crises and
stabilize U.S.-China relations. Mao
reiterated China’s calls for “mutual
respect, peaceful coexistence and win-
win cooperation“ in the bilateral
relationship.
lans for Blinken to visit Beijing were
announced in November after Chinese
President Xi Jinping and U.S. President
Joe Biden had their first in-person
meeting during the Biden administration.
News of the meeting and expectations
that Blinken would visit Beijing had
increased hopes for more stability in the
tense U.S.-China relationship.
Ahead of Blinken’s visit, U.S.
Department of State spokesperson Ned
Price told reporters Thursday that one
goal of high-level conversations with
Beijing was “responsible management”
of the world’s “most consequential”
bilateral relationship. Such talks, he
added, are meant to ensure that
“competition doesn’t veer into conflict.”
[]
DEBUNKED: There Is A
Face On Mars.
(The original 'Face on Mars' image taken
by NASA's Viking 1 orbiter, in grey scale, on
July, 25 1976. Image shows a remnant
massif located in the Cydonia region.)
In 1976, NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft took a
picture of what appeared to be a face on
Mars. Immediately, some people said there
must have been aliens on the Red Planet
that left that face behind as evidence of
their existence. NASA (opens in new tab),
however, pointed out that the suspected
face is really just a pile of rocks casting
shadows that resemble face-like features.
NASA followed up with better-resolution
pictures (opens in new tab) taken from the
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars
Global Surveyor in 1998 and 2001,
respectively. These new images made it
quite clear that the "face on Mars" is
nothing more than a trick of light and
shadows on a completely normal Martian
mound.