Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Beijing's act of sending a surveillance balloon over U.S. airspace in the first bilateral meeting he had with his Chinese counterpart.
“Just met with the PRC’s top diplomat, Wang Yi," Blinken wrote on Twitter after their meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. "I condemned the incursion of the PRC surveillance balloon and stressed it must never happen again. I warned China against providing [material] support to Russia. I also emphasized the importance of keeping open lines of communication."
Blinken told NBC News after the meeting that Wang, the Chinese state councilor and director of Beijing's Central Foreign Affairs Office, gave "no apology" for the Chinese balloon incident.
“There was no apology,” Blinken said. “But what I can also tell you is this was an opportunity to speak very clearly and very directly about the fact that China sent a surveillance balloon over our territory, violating our sovereignty, violating international law.”
“And I told him quite simply that that was unacceptable and can never happen again."
That canceled trip would have been the first from a U.S. secretary of state to China in five years, which the administration had seen as a chance to smooth relations that already deteriorated after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit.
A readout from the State Department's spokesperson Ned Price said that Blinken "made clear the United States will not stand for any violation of our sovereignty, and that the PRC’s high altitude surveillance balloon program—which has intruded into the air space of over 40 countries across 5 continents—has been exposed to the world."
Hours after Wang's comments, Blinken left his Munich hotel to an undisclosed location, ignoring a shouted question from a reporter about whether he was going to meet with Wang as he entered his vehicle at the hotel garage.
But both President Joe Biden and administration officials have stressed that they want to maintain the communication lines open and aren’t looking for conflicts.
“We’ll also continue to engage with China, as we have throughout the past two weeks,” he said.
Blinken reiterated Biden's statements at the meeting with Wang, saying that "the United States will compete and will unapologetically stand up for our values and interests, but that we do not want conflict with the PRC and are not looking for a new Cold War," according to Price.
"The Secretary underscored the importance of maintaining diplomatic dialogue and open lines of communication at all times," said Price.
The State Department directed The Epoch Times to the official statement when asked about the meeting.