US military officials have decided not to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon floating over Montana, and one expert told Fox News Digital that China could interpret the inaction as the US “incapable” of defending its sovereignty.
“The Chinese are saying, ‘You won’t defend yourselves, we can do whatever we want,’” author and columnist Gordon Chang told Fox News Digital in response to a Chinese surveillance balloon flying over Montana and the Biden administration permission to fly.
“You have no sovereignty. This is the message the Chinese are sending. And this is the message that (US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark) Milley is reinforcing. And this is the message Biden is sending to China” .
A senior administration official, who was not authorized to discuss sensitive information publicly, said President Biden was briefed and asked the military to present options on how to handle the surveillance balloon.
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Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping
(AP Images/Getty)
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Milley advised against taking “kinetic action” due to the safety risks to people on the ground. Biden accepted that recommendation.
Chang, author of “The Coming Collapse of China,” told Fox News Digital that the explanation against the balloon downing is “stupid.”
“The Chinese believe, because of our failure to shoot down the balloon, that we are unable to defend ourselves for whatever reason, whether we want to protect the cows on the ground or we don’t want to offend the Chinese,” Chang said. .
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“Milley’s advice is just plain wrong,” added Chang. “And Milley’s advice is just dangerous. Milley’s advice is leading the Chinese to think they should do whatever they want and the United States won’t respond.”
President Biden, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands before their meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit November 14, 2022 in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Chang says the argument that shooting down the balloon is too dangerous is a “meaningless” position because “every course of action now, after decades of wrong policy, is risky and dangerous.”
“The riskiest and most dangerous course of action is to continue what we did by creating this risky and dangerous situation in the first place,” Chang said. “We have created the conditions for war. This is not to say that we are the aggressor, but it is to say that we are allowing China to become an aggressor.”
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Biden has faced a multitude of calls from Republicans, including former President Trump, to bring the balloon down.
“If I were president, I would shoot down the balloon immediately,” Chang said. “I would order Blinken not to go to Beijing, but to go to Taipei instead. I would start closing the four Chinese consulates in the United States, reduce the embassy staff to just the ambassador and his family.
“I would order a shutdown of Chinese operations in the United States. I would like to make it clear to China that there are costs to violating our sovereignty and committing acts of war against the United States of America.”
Gordon Chang spoke to Fox News Digital about the Chinese surveillance balloon flying over Montana
(Fox)
The White House announced Friday that Blinken’s trip to China to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war with Chinese officials and meet with President Xi has been postponed.
“It is unacceptable that this happened. After consultations with our interagency partners, as well as Congress, we have concluded that conditions are not suitable at this time for Secretary Blinken’s trip to China,” a senior official said.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment and was directed to a briefing Friday in which a senior defense official said the United States “simply failed to reduce the risk enough to feel comfortable recommending to shoot it down yesterday”.
The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
Associated Press contributed to this report
