US on Monday said that it is under no illusions about the challenges and threats that it faces from China in many ways.
During the State Department briefing on Monday, spokesperson Ned Price said that the reason behind the US engaging in dialogue and diplomacy is to manage the competition and to also set guardrails on a relationship that is complex and consequential.
The US has numerous concerns from China, espionage being one out of many.
"We're under no illusions about the challenges about the threats we face from the PRC. The reason we have sought to engage in dialogue, in diplomacy, is in the first instance to manage that competition, to see to it that that competition doesn't veer into conflict, but also to set guardrails on a relationship that is complex, that is consequential, precisely because we have a number of concerns about PRC behavior, espionage being one of them," Ned Price said.
Earlier this week, a suspected Chinese spy balloon was first spotted in the sky over Montana in the US, travelling across the middle of the country, before it was shot down by the US military on Saturday.
Earlier, US President Joe Biden said that his administration will "take care" of the suspected Chinese spy balloon, as per a news report. He made the remarks at an airfield in Syracuse in New York, where he was visiting a family. When questioned whether he would shoot down the balloon, Biden said, "We're gonna take care of it," according to CNN.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has said that the balloon entered US airspace by accident. However, the US State Department called the presence of the balloon in US territory a "clear violation" of their sovereignty and international law.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed his trip to China this weekend in light of the incident, which he called a "clear violation of our sovereignty," but said lines of communication will remain open to resolve the issue.
The Pentagon said the balloon over the US is being used for surveillance, rejecting China's claim that the aircraft is a "civilian airship" for research that deviated from course.
( With inputs from ANI )
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