Although the latest revelation about the 2023 Chinese spy balloon scandal is indeed sort of a revelation, we might have guessed it from the Biden administration’s conduct at the time.
It seems that, one, before telling the public anything, “Biden admin held private talks with Beijing on Chinese spy balloon”; and, two, what was no secret, the administration was more concerned about protecting diplomatic relations with China than protecting the United States from China’s spying.
We were able to infer the latter from, among other facts, the fact that the U.S. government let the spy balloon continue to drift past military installations and whatnot for a couple of days after finally telling the public about the spy balloon.
But now we know a little more (Fox News, April 9, 2025).
An internal State Department readout of the talks between Blinken and a top Chinese diplomat said Blinken stated that if the presence of the balloon were revealed publicly, it could have “profound implications for our relationship” with China, particularly amid efforts to stabilize the bilateral relationship with Beijing, two Trump administration officials familiar with the documents told Fox News Digital.
The readout said that the incident could also have complicated Blinken’s travel plans to China in early February 2023, if not quickly resolved. Blinken ultimately postponed the trip until June 2023.
A former Biden administration official told Fox News Digital that the State Department summoned senior Chinese diplomat Zhu Haiquan Feb. 1, 2023, so that the U.S. could notify China to remove the balloon, and issue a warning that the U.S. could take action to eliminate the balloon.
“Former Secretary Blinken advocated strongly to tell the American people about China’s rogue balloon, which is exactly what happened,” a spokesperson for the former secretary of state said in a Tuesday statement to Fox News Digital. “He has a long history of being tough on China while actually delivering results.”
Wow, people will say anything. Blinken “has a long history of being tough on China while actually delivering results.” Blinken.
The fact that the Biden administration continued to let the spy balloon drift aimfully across the United States after the public learned what was happening confirmed, even back then, that protecting the U.S. and Americans was not the very top priority for the administration.
Anyway, it’s confirmed. And we also know now that, before the public learned anything, there were secret talks in which the Biden administration urged China to do something about the spy balloon so that the Biden administration would not have to do something about the spy balloon. The spy balloon that, we were assured after the Biden administration finally condescended to end its journey, had failed to transmit any information to China. Even though “Packed With American Tech.”
