BEIJING HONG KONG: China may respond to the US shooting down its suspected spy balloon after warning of serious consequences, but analysts say it will be finely calibrated to keep from worsening ties that both sides have been trying to repair.
Regional analysts and diplomats are closely watching China's response after a US fighter jet shot down the balloon - which Beijing says is an errant weather-monitoring craft - in the Atlantic off South Carolina on Saturday February 4. China condemned the attack as an overreaction saying it reserved the right to deal with similar situations without elaborating.
Some analysts said they would be looking at the seas and skies of East Asia for signs of tension, given growing deployments of ships and aircraft from China and the US and its allies.
In the past few days, Beijing and Washington have been trying to improve ties, despite the fact that bilateral tension has risen over the balloon incident.
The discovery of a balloon in the upper atmosphere above North America prompted the US to postpone a visit to Beijing this week by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The trip had resulted from a November summit between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping.
Both sides are widely seen as keen to stabilise relations after a turbulent few years, with the Biden administration leery of tensions and Xi aiming for a recovery for the world's second largest economy after a severe COVID 19 slump.
The path of rebuilding US-China relations likely remains on track, said Zhao Tong, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a visiting researcher at Princeton University.
Zhao told Reuters that the two sides still have a shared interest in stabilising and managing the bilateral relationship.