Biden denies US-China ties more strained after balloon spat

Bloomberg

President Joe Biden denied that relations with Beijing have suffered a serious blow after the US downed an alleged Chinese spy balloon that flew across the continental US.
Biden said that the US is currently recovering “major pieces” of the aircraft to analyze the equipment. But he maintained that the incident hasn’t further exacerbated tensions with the country.
“No. No,” Biden told Judy Woodruff in an interview for PBS Newshour on Wednesday, when asked if ties between the world’s two largest economies had taken a “big hit.”
“Look, the idea shooting down a balloon that’s gathering information over America, and that makes relations worse? Look, I made it real clear to Xi Jinping that we’re going to compete fully with China but we’re not going looking for conflict. And that’s been the case so far,” Biden responded.
The president clarified that he has not spoken to the Chinese president since the incident. “I talked to Xi Jinping before. And our team talks to their people,” Biden said.