A Spy Balloon and a Reporting Journey to China, Up within the Air

The Chinese language diplomat behind the window on the visa workplace known as me and the opposite journalists as much as the desk, one after the other, handy us our passports. I flipped by mine till I noticed the entry visa for China, good for 4 days.

It appeared an auspicious solution to kick off the Yr of the Rabbit, which promised to be a busy one for United States-China relations, a topic I cowl as a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Instances.

The opposite reporters and I have been set to board a airplane the subsequent evening with Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, to spend two days in China, which had closed itself off from the world in the course of the coronavirus pandemic and was solely simply beginning to reopen. An American secretary of state had not visited Beijing, the Chinese language capital, since 2018, and we have been making the journey to report on Mr. Blinken’s talks with President Xi Jinping and different prime Chinese language officers.

I’ve traveled world wide many occasions with American secretaries of state, however this journey had a private dimension: I reported from China for almost a decade, and was The Instances’s Beijing bureau chief earlier than lastly returning to the USA in 2016. I bought married and began a household there; I’ve lived in Beijing, longer than I’ve in every other metropolis in my grownup life. Since leaving I’ve been again to China solely as soon as, on a short reporting journey.

Throughout the week main as much as this go to, I purchased items for outdated buddies and organized for a reunion dinner at a favourite restaurant, Susu, situated in the identical historic alleyway the place I had as soon as lived. However inside hours of my biking residence from the visa workplace, the journey was put in jeopardy — by a shock customer to the USA from China.

On that Thursday afternoon, Feb. 2, Pentagon officers revealed in a briefing with reporters that they believed a mysterious white orb bobbing within the skies above Montana was a Chinese language spy balloon, after NBC Information posted an article saying that the American army had been monitoring it. The officers mentioned they weren’t going to shoot down the balloon but due to a priority that falling particles may hurt individuals on the bottom.

That evening, different diplomatic correspondents and I heard that Mr. Blinken and White Home and Pentagon officers have been debating whether or not or to not cancel his go to. We realized that the journey itself was changing into a giant a part of the story.

Some Republican lawmakers issued statements criticizing President Biden for not capturing down the balloon instantly. A number of known as on Mr. Blinken to cancel his journey; others assumed he would go, however demanded that he take a tough stand whereas there. The Republican lawmakers on the Home Overseas Affairs Committee mentioned it was “crucial” that Mr. Blinken inform Mr. Xi and his authorities in the course of the go to that “their army adventurism will not be tolerated.”

I finished packing and went to mattress previous midnight, nonetheless uncertain of what would occur.

The subsequent morning, State Division officers advised us we should always get examined for Covid-19, a regular requirement for touring with the secretary. On the similar time, the Chinese language Overseas Ministry in Beijing issued an announcement saying the balloon was a civilian machine designed for climate analysis that had, regrettably, strayed off track. It appeared that Chinese language diplomats have been attempting to salvage the journey.

I had simply completed getting my check on the State Division when company officers advised reporters to hitch a briefing name, throughout which they introduced that Mr. Blinken was canceling the journey. Mr. Biden had accredited the choice that morning. At a information convention that afternoon, Mr. Blinken mentioned the “irresponsible act” by China had violated U.S. sovereignty, and he would solely make the journey “when situations permit.”

So as an alternative of touring to Beijing, I spent the weekend reporting with my colleague Helene Cooper, a Pentagon correspondent, on a U.S. fighter jet capturing down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina. We additionally reported on the fallout: the seek for the particles, the rise in tensions in United States-China relations and revelations in regards to the world balloon surveillance program being directed by the Individuals’s Liberation Military of China.

Tv networks have been operating nonstop protection; individuals throughout the nation have been posting about recognizing the balloon because it drifted from above the Rocky Mountains to the Midwestern plains to the Atlantic Coast. I obtained texts from members of the family and buddies all through the weekend asking in regards to the balloon.

As theories and hypothesis circulated, I contacted authorities sources and China consultants I had identified for years; this sort of story at all times units off a scramble within the Washington press corps for restricted scraps of data. U.S. officers have been solely studying in regards to the balloon’s capabilities in actual time, and we stored updating our articles as we bought details.

I used to be seemingly spending extra time reporting on China than if I had truly accompanied Mr. Blinken on his diplomatic mission to Beijing.

My buddies in China and I have been disenchanted that the journey was canceled, however we knew that the vagaries of worldwide diplomacy and espionage have been past our management.

That Saturday evening, hours after the balloon was shot down, I attended the birthday dinner of an excellent pal at a brand new Chinese language restaurant in downtown Washington. All of the company knew one another from our years in Beijing. We ate duck and toasted each other with rice wine and listened to a track that one of many hosts had requested to listen to, Nena’s “99 Luftballons.”