Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi engaged in "an unofficial contact" with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the request of the US side on the sidelines of the 59th Munich Security Conference on Saturday local time.

Wang, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, "stated China's solemn position on the so-called airship incident", according to a statement by the Foreign Ministry.

He asked the US side to "change course, facing up to and addressing its damage on US-China relations brought by its abuse of force".

Earlier this month, the US army shot down a Chinese unmanned airship that was spotted in the airspace above the US, triggering Beijing's "strong dissatisfaction and protest over the use of armed force by the US side".

Beijing has reiterated that the airship is for civilian use and it entered the US due to force majeure, constituting a completely unintended situation.
Before and following the shooting, senior US officials and politicians kept hyping the airship and China's "threat" to the US.