A spy balloon and a reporting trip to China, in the air

A diplomatic correspondent for The Times was eagerly awaiting a return to Beijing, until an international crisis erupted.

The Chinese diplomat behind the visa office window called me and the other reporters to the office, one by one, to hand over our passports. I flipped through mine until I saw the entry visa for China, valid for four days.

It seemed like a good way to start 'Year of the Rabbit, which promised to be busy with US-China relations, a topic I cover as a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times.

The other journalists and I were to board a plane the following night with Antony J. Blinken, the US Secretary of State, to spend two days in China, which had closed itself off to the world during the coronavirus pandemic and was just beginning to reopen. A US Secretary of State had not been to Beijing, the Chinese capital, since 2018, and we were traveling to report on Mr. Blinken's talks with President Xi Jinping and other senior Chinese officials.< /p>

I have traveled around the world many times with US Secretaries of State, but this trip had a personal dimension: I reported from China for almost a decade, and I was the Times bureau chief in Beijing before finally returning to the United States in 2016. I got married and started a family there; I have lived in Beijing longer than any other city in my adult life. Since leaving, I have only returned to China once, on a brief reporting trip.

In the week leading up to this visit , I bought presents for old friends and hosted a reunion dinner at a favorite restaurant, Susu, located in the same old alley where I had lived. But a few hours after I cycled back from the visa office, the trip was jeopardized - by a surprise visitor to the United States from China.

This Thursday afternoon, February 2, Pentagon officials revealed during a briefing with reporters that they believe a mysterious white orb floating in the sky above Montana was a Chinese spy balloon, after NBC News published an article saying that the US military was following him. Officials said they weren't going to bring the balloon down yet because they were concerned the falling debris could injure people on the ground.

ImageSecretary of State Antony J. Blinken's trip to Beijing would have been the first trip there by a Biden cabinet secretary.Credit...Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

That night, other diplomatic correspondents and I heard that Mr. Blinken and White House and Pentagon officials were debating whether to whether or not to cancel his visit. We realized that the trip itself became a big part of the story.

Some Republican lawmakers have issued statements criticizing President Biden for not shooting down the ball immediately. Several have asked Mr. Blinken to cancel his trip; others assumed he would go, but demanded that he take a strong stand while there. Republican lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said it was "imperative" that Mr. Blinken told Mr. Xi and his government during the visit that "their military adventurism will no longer be tolerated". /p>

I stopped packing and went to bed after midnight, still unsure of what was about to happen.

The next morning we were told by State Department officials that we should go get tested for Covid-19, a standard requirement for traveling with the Secretary. At the same time, the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing released a statement saying the balloon was a...