MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. A senior Chinese diplomat lambasted the recent incident with a Chinese balloon above the United States as a farce on the part of Washington, saying that Beijing notified the Americans as soon as the surveillance equipment entered their airspace.

Commenting on the incident in an interview with TASS, Liu Xiaoming, Beijing’s special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs, said that the balloon was used purely for meteorological and other surveys and that it posed no threat to either the US population or other facilities on US soil. The balloon was brought into the US airspace by western winds as it deviated from its designated course, Liu maintained. He insisted that the incident had been caused by "force majeure events."

"The incident with the Chinese balloon is, in fact, a farce directed by the United States. <…> The Chinese side sticks to a very responsible approach, and it passed the relevant information to the US side and the international community in the first few minutes," he said.

Liu emphasized that Beijing had called on Washington "to display common sense, keep a cool head and show professionalism" in order to jointly settle this situation, but that the US ignored the fundamental facts and calls and fired a missile to down the balloon.

"The hysteria bewildered us completely. That 100% was an abuse of military power and a gross violation of international conventions and international practice. This is no proof of the so-called US might, but quite the opposite. We have already issued a resolute protest to our US counterparts so that they could reform their mistaken policies and realize and rectify the negative consequences of that incident," he maintained.

The senior Chinese diplomat warned that Beijing would not sit and wait if the United States inflated the situation. "It is the United States who is to blame for all the consequences," he added.