Monitoring Desk
BEIJING: Vice Foreign Minister of China Xie Feng on Sunday lodged solemn representations with the United States embassy in China over the use of force by the US to attack China’s civilian unmanned airship.
According to a statement released by the Foreign Ministry on Monday, Xie said that the Chinese airship’s entry into the US airspace due to force majeure was accidental and unexpected and that the details of what happened were crystal clear and did not allow room for smearing or distortion.
However, he said that the U.S. side had turned a deaf ear to all of this with over-reaction by insisting on the abusive usage of force towards the civilian airship that was on route to leave the airspace of the US He further said that the action had seriously violated the spirit of international law and international practice.
“What the US has done severely impacted and undermined the efforts and progress made by both two countries to stabilize China-U.S. relations since leaders of the two sides met in Bali, Indonesia,” Xie said.
China’s Discontent with US
He further said China firmly opposes and strongly protests against this, calling the U.S. side not to take further measures to harm the interests of China and not to upgrade or expand tensions between the two sides.
The Vice Foreign Minister further said that the China government was closely following the development of the situation and will resolutely safeguard the legitimate interests and rights of the Chinese company concerned and safeguard China’s dignity and interests and, if needed, reserves the right to further react in response to the matter.
Earlier on Sunday, China expressed strong dissatisfaction and opposition towards the U.S. use of force to attack China’s civilian unmanned airship.
Meanwhile, last Friday, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, while answering a relevant query, said that the civilian airship is used for research, mainly meteorological purposes.
