KEY POINTS
  • U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will postpone his trip to Beijing due to a Chinese surveillance balloon flying over the United States.
  • China's Foreign Ministry said Friday that the balloon was a civilian weather balloon intended for scientific research that was blown off course.
  • The balloon is flying high enough, above 60,000 feet, so that it isn't a threat to civil aircraft, Pentagon officials said. It is expected to remain over U.S. airspace for a few more days.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken indefinitely postponed what was to be an already tense trip to China on Friday, citing a Chinese reconnaissance balloon moving east across the United States that posed a threat to national security.

Blinken had been scheduled to depart for Beijing Friday night, on a trip that was intended to reinforce communication and cooperation between the two countries.