US postpones Blinken China trip indefinitely over spy balloon furor

(New York Post) The Biden administration has scrapped Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned visit to China early next week after a suspected spy balloon launched by Beijing was spotted over the western US.

The postponement, first reported by Bloomberg, was confirmed by the State Department Friday morning after the balloon was located over Montana late Thursday.

“We’ve assessed it would not be conducive or constructive to travel to Beijing right now,” a department official told reporters. “And I think, candidly speaking, in this current environment, I think it would have significantly narrowed the agenda that we would have been able to address.”---More...