The Aftermath Of The Monitored Balong, US Secretary Of State Antony Blinken A Travel To China

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken while attending the G20 Foreign Minister's Meeting in Bali. (Wikimedia Commons/State Department/Ron Przysucha)

JAKARTA - United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken decided to postpone his visit to China originally planned for Friday after Chinese spy balloons were tracked flying across the United States, a US official said.

ABC News quoted a US official as saying Foreign Minister Blinken did not want to exaggerate the situation by canceling his visit, but also did not want balloon incidents to dominate his meeting with Chinese officials.

A US official confirmed the postponement to Reuters.

China previously expressed regret that the so-called "civil" plane had lost to the US territory after being flown, an incident that sparked political upheaval in the United States.

Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told reporters the government was tracking high-altitude reconnaissance balloons over the mainland of the United States and said it was "flying at altitudes well above commercial air traffic and did not present a military or physical threat to people."

US military leaders were considering shooting down a balloon over Montana on Wednesday, but in the end President Joe Biden decided not to, due to security risks from the rubble, US officials said.

Separately, in a statement on Friday, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the balloons for civilian and other scientific meteorological purposes regretted that the plane had lost to US airspace.

The ministry also said it would continue to communicate with the United States to "handle properly" unexpected situations. A Chinese government spokesman said earlier that "China has no intention of violating any sovereign country's land and airspace."

Meanwhile, a US official said the balloon was considered to have "limited additive value from an intelligence gathering perspective."

Blinken's travel delay, which was approved in November by President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, will be a blow to both sides who see it as an opportunity to stabilize relations that are continuing to crack.

Relations between China and the United States have deteriorated in recent years, especially after the visit of then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan last year, in response to Beijing's large-scale military exercises near the island.

Such balloons typically operate at an altitude of 80,000-120,000 feet (24,000-37,000 meters), well above the commercial air traffic station. High-performance fighter aircraft usually do not operate above 65,000 feet, although spy planes such as U-2 have service heights of 80,000 feet or more.

Craig Singleton, a Chinese expert from the Democracy Defense Foundation, said such balloons had been widely used by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and were low-cost intelligence gathering methods.