After the U.S. military shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon that had been hovering over the country for nearly a week, tensions remain between the two superpowers, which had previously been making some progress toward greater diplomacy.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelled a planned trip to Beijing due to the spy balloon, marking terrible timing for this stunt, said Olivier Knox, Washington Post national political correspondent. The cancelled trip bodes poorly for U.S.-China relations.
Knox said the balloon debacle is an "embarrassment" for Chinese President Xi Jinping. "This is a bit of a black eye for the Chinese on this, at least the fact that they were caught certainly is," Knox said on Greater Boston.
U.S. officials are now working to collect debris from the balloon and analyzing the equipment.
Mark Wu, Harvard law professor and director of the university’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies said the average American shouldn't just brush off these type of spying incidents.
"We should care because none of us want to find ourselves in a war, nor do we want to find ourselves unable to solve these problems," Wu said.
Watch: Diplomacy is derailed after the US shot down the Chinese surveillance balloon
