Pentagon says Austin rebuffed when he sought to reach out to Beijing over Chinese spy balloon
Posted on AllSides February 8th, 2023
From The Center
Directly after the U.S. military shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon on Saturday, the Pentagon’s top civilian attempted to reach out to his Chinese counterpart but was rebuffed, the Defense Department revealed Tuesday.
“Immediately after taking action to down the [People’s Republic of China] balloon, the DOD submitted a request for a secure call between” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement.
