February 13, 2023
China’s Balloon-Size Blunder Is a Huge Opportunity
In the pre-balloon era, China was busily engaged in a charm offensive. Following October’s Communist Party congress, at which Xi Jinping won an unprecedented third term in office, Beijing made moves to stifle the combative and confrontational group of diplomats known as wolf warriors. Xi hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the capital, and condemned Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. The tone of China’s leading diplomats noticeably softened. Vice Premier Liu He, meeting with corporate executives in Davos, Switzerland, emphasized that China was back and open for business. And for the first time in almost six years, Xi planned to host a U.S. secretary of state in China.
Whether a product of hubris or incompetence, the Chinese-spy-balloon affair has derailed Beijing’s charm offensive and raised grave suspicions among Americans.
Then a Chinese spy balloon drifted across the U.S., and into America’s consciousness. The very brazenness of the act upended Beijing’s carefully tended diplomatic campaign and forced it into damage-control mode. At the same time, the balloon handed the United States, already engaged in heightened competition with China, a rare opportunity to rally both public concern and international solidarity.
Read the full article from The Atlantic.
More from CNAS
-
AUKUS weighs expanding security pact with Japan to deter China
Podcast
Australia and the United States have deepened their commitment to countering China's growing aggression in the Indo Pacific by bringing Japan into the fold. The allies announc...
By Richard Fontaine
-
Lisa Curtis on U.S. and Japan's Security Alliance
Video
Lisa Curtis talked about Japanese Prime Minister’s trip to the U.S. and the security alliance between the two countries amid threats from China. Watch the full video and more ...
By Lisa Curtis
-
Japan will probably be a member of AUKUS Pillar 2 'before too long,' Richard Fontaine says
Video
Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Center for New American Security, discusses Japan's relation to AUKUS, the Indo-Pacific security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom...
By Richard Fontaine
-
Countering China’s Influence in Myanmar
Commentary
The United States must act now to capitalize on the momentum of the EAOs, taking immediate action to help shore up their efforts against the Junta....
By Nathaniel Schochet
