President Joe Biden said Wednesday the United States is not looking for conflict with China despite heightened tensions over last week’s downing of a Chinese balloon that US officials say was part of a spy fleet spanning five continents.
“We’re going to compete fully with China, but… we’re not looking for conflict — and that’s been the case so far,” he said in a televised interview with PBS.
Pointing to global ramifications of the balloon incident that has animated the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier that the United States was giving data to allies as it assesses recovered debris.
“We already shared information with dozens of countries around the world, both from Washington and through our embassies,” Blinken said.
“We’re doing so because the United States was not the only target of this broader program, which has violated the sovereignty of countries across five continents,” he told a joint news conference with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg
