‘Spy balloon’ has darkened diplomatic skies over US and China

The predictable outrage from China hawks in Washington over the suspected spy balloon has pushed Biden into another political corner

A wholly avoidable blunder on Beijing’s side, the incident has for now deflated hopes of de-escalating US-China tensions

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The US Capitol in Washington, US, on February 6, ahead of US President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on February 7. Photo: AFP

Tom Plate

Tom Plate is a university professor and a veteran columnist focused on Asia and America.

Published: 1:30am, 8 Feb 2023Updated: 2:38am, 8 Feb 2023

Hot air propels not just balloons. Embattled US President Joe Biden and his battle-prone Washington – the American capital more divided, presumably, than that of President Xi Jinping’s Beijing – are due to clash anew this week at the US State of the Union address.

Unlike the superficial serenity of a national party congress in Beijing, where delegates commune with the leader in respectful Confucian fashion, the cavernous House of Representatives, packing in both Senate and House members for the special annual event, will more resemble a farmer’s barn of hooting owls and braying animals than of an exemplary chamber of a putatively premier legislature.

Outside the Congress building, a malaise of restless Americans will await. Even as, in time, public memory of the hapless Chinese reconnaissance/spy balloon blows away, the animus of partisan hot air poisoning public opinion will hover over US politics like a continual political smog warning. China, we shall see, will be found guilty yet again.