In last year’s State of the Union address, some of President Joe Biden’s splashiest remarks centered on what was then Russia’s recent and shocking invasion of Ukraine. This year, Biden reserved such remarks for another, more formidable global power: China. Fortunately, Biden’s comments showed restraint and calm at a time of surging tensions between Washington and Beijing. And they marked a rejection of pressure to assume a warlike posture just to please China hawks, who have slammed Biden for having opted not to shoot down a Chinese surveillance balloon until it had floated out over the Atlantic Ocean. Biden pledged that the U.S. will take necessary steps to defend itself, but he also said he has “made clear with President Xi that we seek competition, not conflict.”
First, some background on the whole balloon incident: The military spotted and began tracking a Chinese surveillance balloon on Jan. 28, as it hovered over Alaska. The balloon began to become a major media story a few days later, particularly as civilians began to spot it over the continental U.S. It was a natural media spectacle — the idea of a balloon’s being menacing lent itself to a massive wave of speculation, jokes and intrigue. And it appeared likely that it was hovering over Montana to gather information about an intercontinental ballistic missile site.
For Biden to clearly say “we seek competition, not conflict,” was a clear bid to slow down a potential escalatory spiral.
Biden has said he wanted to shoot the balloon down immediately but was advised by the Defense Department to wait until it floated over the ocean. Such a strategy had two advantages: First, it would ensure civilian safety, as shooting down a balloon of such size would have posed a serious danger to anybody on the ground below it. Second, it would allow the Pentagon to study the balloon and more easily recover its parts to investigate China’s technological capabilities. In the meantime, the military took…
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