U.S. handling of balloon incident 'hysterical', China's top diplomat says

A suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, which Beijing denies was a government spy vessel, spent a week flying over the United States and Canada before being shot down

China's top diplomat Wang Yi said on February 18 that the U.S. handling of the balloon incident had been "unimaginable" and "hysterical", and an "absurd" act that violated international norms.

"There are so many balloons all over the world, so is the United States going to shoot all of them down?," Mr. Wang, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said at the Munich Security Conference.

A suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, which Beijing denies was a government spy vessel, spent a week flying over the United States and Canada before being shot down off the Atlantic Coast earlier this month on U.S. President Joe Biden's orders.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has weighed meeting with Wang on the sidelines of the Munich conference, but there has been no confirmed meeting as of early Saturday.

Mr. is set to depart Munich on Sunday