Chinese tech stocks retreat as U.S.-China tensions rise
Andrew Burton/Getty Images News

Chinese tech stocks such as Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), Baidu (BIDU) and Pinduoduo (NASDAQ:PDD) lost ground Monday as tensions between the United States and China ratcheted up after the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the weekend. 
The U.S. shot down the balloon as its floated into American airspace above the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday. The balloon had been drifitng across the U.S. last week before American military officials took action to bring it down. 
In response to the situation, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken cancelled a meeting he was scheduled to have with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping. Chinese officials said the U.S. "overreacted" by shooting down the balloon, which they claimed was not engaged in spying activity.
Chinese tech stocks in the red included Alibaba (BABA), which recovered some of its losses but remained down by about 1%. Baidu (BIDU) shares fell by more than 1%, Weibo (WB) was down by 1.7% and NetEase (NTES), which gave up 2%.
Other decliners included Tencent Holdings (OTCPK:TCEHY), off by 1%, PinDuoDuo (PDD), down 3% and JD.com (NASDAQ:JD), which slipped by 2%. The KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB) was down by 2.5%.
The balloon situation threw a monkey wrench into efforts to improve relations between Washington and Bejing.