Blinken Has Tense Meeting With Chinese Official

“Secretary of State Antony Blinken held what American officials described as a confrontational meeting with his Chinese counterpart on Saturday night in Munich, warning him that the flight of a Chinese surveillance balloon across the United States ‘must never happen again,’” the New York Times reports.

“He also cautioned Beijing against providing ‘material support’ to Russia’s war in Ukraine, a prospect he later suggested China was now ‘strongly’ considering.”

“The U.S. description of the meeting, which resumed diplomatic contact between Washington and Beijing after it broke down over the balloon episode, said nothing about how the Chinese official, Wang Yi, responded. But a brief summary on official Chinese state media described an equally sharp exchange.”