State-owned news outlets in China have repeatedly dismissed the U.S. determination that the balloon was used for surveillance.
U.S. President Joe Biden listens as Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks to the press before a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on February 10, 2023 in Washington, DC. Chinese state media has criticized Biden's handling of a suspected Chinese spy balloon.
The article repeated the claim that the U.S. had called the object a spy balloon"despite not having any evidence to back up their claim and regardless of China explaining that it was a balloon for research." The article went on to accuse the U.S. of conducting surveillance flights"near China's shores," and asked:"How would the U.S. respond if China were to conduct frequent surveillance flights off the coast of California, New York or Florida?"
Pointing to the fact that Biden's second State of the Union speech took place while he was being criticized by Republicans for his handling of the balloon, it argued that the criticism, combined with Biden's low approval rating, had led him to"overreact to the balloon incident." "The U.S. should have dealt with the balloon case in a calm and responsible way without letting it being hijacked by the bitter domestic partisan politics because a conflict between the two countries would spell disaster for the entire world," the op-ed concluded.