China calls US resolution over balloon ‘political manipulation’

Beijing: China on Friday dismissed a US House of Representatives resolution condemning China over a suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down above US waters as “purely political manipulation and hyping up.” “China is strongly dissatisfied with this and firmly opposes it,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters at a daily briefing.

“The resolution by the U.S. Congress was purely political manipulation and hyping up,” Mao said. The resolution, which passed unanimously on Thursday, condemned China for a “brazen violation” of U.S. sovereignty and efforts to “deceive the international community through false claims about its intelligence collection campaigns.”