The Chinese are not very impressed with the balloon speech that President Joe Biden made on Feb. 16. They see it as an ineffective attempt to mitigate the negative effects of the Biden Administration’s handling of the balloon incident on U.S.-Chinese relations. “Biden’s Thursday speech was made as he faced increasing pressure in Washington to be more transparent about the situation around the Chinese balloon and the aerial objects, after confusing information from the military and the White House left not only Americans, but also the international community perplexed,” Global Times said in an analysis published yesterday. “Compared to some anti-China hawkish ‘China threat’ rhetoric, Biden’s low-key speech aims to bring a soft landing to the balloon saga, analysts said.”
During the Chinese Foreign Ministry briefing, yesterday, spokesman Wang Wenbin called the incident “a test for the U.S. side’s capability to properly manage crisis and sincerity about stabilizing relations with China.”
