48 hours prior to the convening of the Munich Security Conference, I offered a gentle reminder to those hoping for rapprochement between the US and China.

Even if Antony Blinken did meet with his counterpart this weekend, Wang Yi “isn’t exactly famous for affability,” I dryly remarked.

Blinken was scheduled to visit Beijing recently, but the balloon fiasco shot down those plans. In recent days, the Chinese foreign ministry adopted a characteristically caustic cadence in deriding the Biden administration’s response to the aerial incursion that exploded this month in yet another international rift between the world’s two superpowers.

The conference in Munich was seen as an opportunity for Blinken and Wang to “clear the air,” as it were, only without the F-22s. Although the two did meet, it wasn’t until Wang took the opportunity to chide and lampoon the US thoroughly on the world stage.

After repeating the contention that the airship was a “civilian” device that “veered off course due to a strong westerly wind,” Wang called the decision to engage it with a fighter jet “absurd and hysterical.” He also accused Biden of using the balloon “to divert attention” from America’s many “domestic problems.” Here’s the full quote from Wang:

We asked that the US side calmly handle it by negotiating with China to deal with the situation properly. Unfortunately, the US disregarded the most basic facts and brazenly deployed advanced warplanes to shoot down a balloon. With missiles! This is, I would say, absurd and hysterical. It is an abuse of the use of force, 100%. Across the globe, there are many balloons in the sky from different countries. Do you want to shoot down every one of them?

The answer to that latter question is “Maybe!” Just ask a missing $12 hobby balloon.

Jokes aside, there was something to Wang’s scolding, particularly his contention that the White House took some pleasure in turning the balloon into a weekend, made-for-Twitter special. It was like fighter jets over a football game at halftime, only with real missiles, and no concert.

Tempting though it is to join Wang in chuckling at the use of what might’ve been excessive force earlier this month, we shouldn’t lose the plot. Wang can be abrasive, and his purpose at the marquee conference was to advance Xi’s agenda and interests — whatever they are.

Although he paid the usual lip service to China’s desire for “peaceful coexistence” with the rest of the world, Wang also parroted Kremlin talking points about the war in Ukraine. “Some” nations may be pursuing “a strategy” that’s bigger than “Ukraine itself,” he said, an ironic contention given the extent to which Xi is surely eyeing the conflict for clues as to what China might expect both in terms of sanctions and military pushback in the event the PLA moves on Taiwan.

Wang did express Beijing’s desire to see the conflict resolved (it “must not continue”) and said the use of chemical and biological weapons can’t be countenanced “under any circumstances.” The US will be inclined to cast a wary, skeptical eye at conciliatory remarks from Wang in light of recent reports that Chinese state-owned enterprises are knowingly providing material assistance to the Kremlin’s war effort.

Later, in a statement, Blinken said he “condemned the incursion of the PRC surveillance balloon and stressed it must never happen again” during a meeting with Wang. “I warned China against providing materiel support to Russia [and] emphasized the importance of keeping open lines of communication,” he added.

Kamala Harris, meanwhile, lit into Vladimir Putin during a closely-watched address at the conference, calling Russia’s invasion an “assault on our common values,” a “systemic attack against a civilian population” and accusing Putin of crimes against humanity.

“I say to all those who have perpetrated these crimes and to their superiors who are complicit: You will be held to account,” she said.