China balloon sparks international law debate

News

China balloon sparks international law debate

Jaclyn Belczyk | JURIST Executive Editor

February 6, 2023 11:19:33 am

The Chinese balloon that floated over US airspace last week before being shot down by a US military jet Saturday has raised questions of international law on both the US and Chinese sides. The US claims that the balloon was a spy balloon, while China maintains that it was a civilian scientific research balloon that had strayed off course.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken canceled a planned trip to Beijing. Speaking at a news conference, Blinken said:

It’s very important to emphasize that the presence of this surveillance balloon over the United States, in our skies, is a clear violation of our sovereignty, a clear violation of international law, and clearly unacceptable, and we’ve made that clear to China. Any country that has its airspace violated in this way, I think, would respond similarly, and I can only imagine what the reaction would be in China if they were on the other end.

Blinken’s statement that the presence of the balloon violated international law, was reiterated by White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre, who said, “it is a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law, and it is unacceptable this occurred.” Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said, “we do know that the balloon has violated US airspace and international law.”

While Chinese officials have not gone so far as to accuse the US of violating international law by shooting down the balloon, they have accused the US of overreacting. In an official response Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “Under such circumstances, the US insists on using force, obviously overreacting and seriously violating international practice. China will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of relevant companies, while reserving the right to make further necessary reactions.”

On Monday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning reiterated this stance:

China is a responsible country that strictly abides by international law and respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries. History has proved that it is the United States that often tramples on international law and violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries. We have already indicated that this is entirely an accidental event caused by force majeure. It is an unacceptable and irresponsible act for the US to deliberately hype up and even attack by force.

It remains to be seen how this incident will impact strained US-China relations.

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail

On April 16, 1963, an incarcerated Martin Luther King, Jr. (arrested for demonstrating in defiance of a court order) wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama.

Part of the letter read: We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. Read the full text of the Letter.