Republican senators pen letter urging Biden to release findings from Chinese spy balloon probe
GOP senators on Thursday called on US President Joe Biden to release findings from the suspected Chinese spy balloon investigation and expressed frustration with his administration’s alleged failure to deal with China’s threats to America’s security and sovereignty.
The top Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee – Marco Rubio and Roger Wicker – penned a letter to the president with 17 fellow GOP senators, including all who sit on their committees.
Increased Threats To America’s Security
In the letter, the officials called on Biden to instruct relevant departments to release information about China’s surveillance programme and to explain how the suspected spy balloon found its way into US territory, what it was carrying, and what information it could collect.
The Republican senators further asked the administration to take a stronger stance against Chinese threats. Under the control of the Chinese Communist Party, the Asian country has only increased its threats to America’s security, they wrote in the letter.
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Continuing, the officials highlighted several other instances of concern, including the People’s Republic of China (PRC)
- Conducting dangerous maneuvers against US aircraft in the South China Sea and US ships navigating international waters
- Continuing to support the brutal war in Ukraine
- Causing trouble to American companies operating in China
- Threatening a free and democratic Taiwan
- Committing egregious human rights violations
Blinken’s High-profile Trip To China
The letter comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to depart for his trip to China today. The high-profile trip was originally scheduled for February this year, but the incident involving the alleged spy balloon eventually brought a change.
The senators quoted a Financial Times report in the letter that alleged China blocked the top diplomat’s visit in the past over concerns the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will release the results of a probe into the suspected surveillance balloon.
“We therefore call on you … to release the FBI’s findings on the PRC’s spy balloon immediately,” the officials wrote in the letter, asking Biden to “respond with strength, or risk further aggression from America’s adversaries.”
