Blinken Trip to China Postponed After Alleged Spy Balloon Spotted Over U.S.

The Biden administration has indefinitely postponed Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing after determining that U.S. sovereignty was violated by what it identified as a Chinese reconnaissance balloon loitering above the continental U.S., the State Department said Friday.

U.S. officials on Thursday said the craft was loitering over Montana having earlier crossed Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and Canada. The Pentagon scrambled jets and at one point considered shooting down the balloon, the officials said, though didn’t over concerns that the debris posed a risk to people on the ground.