The flap over an enormous Chinese balloon that flew, or blew, unannounced over the US and Canada last week has a certain funny side. The hype was all there, and various conspiracy theories were published in the world media. Pentagon officials went on a high alert, fearful that their missile base in Montana was being spied on. US President Joe Biden, triggered a compelling amount of different reaction on why he decided not to shoot it down as soon as it was recognized drifting over the US borders.
Republicans said that Biden was weak when it comes to decision-making. The Chinese remained calm and wanted to talk it over with US officials saying that the balloon was a weather device that accidentally had gone astray, nevertheless, apologised for causing inconvenience and panic among the Americans.
What happened says a lot, mostly nothing good, but only confirming the jittery status of US-China relations. Two of the most powerful countries in the world are clamoring over various issues, big or small.
There was no civil communication, and no mutual trust was established.
The Chinese regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure. The balloon is definitely not the so-called spy balloon that has been hyped by some politicians in the US.
How come an ordinary weather surveillance airship became a “spy balloon?” We think it’s very common for US politicians. Let’s not forget that the world has witnessed how the US politicians once made a tube of washing powder look like a tube of evidence corroborating that Iraq was developing chemical weapons.
We went to do a little reading about these Chinese balloons over some references on the internet. If you come to check on it, the US media were already making news and articles about “China’s spy balloon” on Google. And before, they weren’t hyping it up and calling it as a “spy balloon” until it flew over and drifted over the state of Montana, where Malmstrom Air Force Base is located.
And, considering how advanced the monitoring of the US is, why hadn’t any US government officials, politicians, or media mentioned the strayed balloon before it floated into the US airspace? Why did they wait until the strayed balloon flew over the US’ territory and reached the state of Montana before hyping it up and calling it a “Chinese spy balloon?”
In the age of space flight and space satellites, the idea of floating a balloon around sounds more quaint than dangerous. But not really. At a minimum, it is a middle finger to the US for all the American surveillance that pisses off the Chinese very badly. But apparently, these balloons are under some degree of active control. Primarily, it means, these kinds of devices have the capability to loiter and change altitude (reportedly just between 30K and 60K) and to maneuver by picking up favorable winds in its course. This enables it to continuously observe activity in near real time, something orbiting satellites can’t do.
About satellites, here’s the truth. Satellites can capture precise information in an efficient, fast and hidden way. China, including the US and Russia owns near-earth-orbit satellites as part of their national defense. So, if China wanted to collect information, why would it bother to use such a time-consuming, primitive, easily-being-spotted balloon?
Therefore, accusing it of being a “spy balloon” an act of anti-intellectual and lacking common knowledge? Or did the US media and politicians try to fool their own?
Needless to say, China did make an effort in communicating with the US side to handle the unintended situation caused. But the US chose to ignore China’s initiative and persisted in hyping up the absurd theory. What’s their intention?
Chinese technology is awesome. It took off as a weather balloon and by the time it reached the USA airspace the balloon suddenly somehow transformed into a spy balloon. And the things that followed are funnier.
It posed a national threat to the security of the USA that they had to employ four warplanes and a warship to ambush and shut it down with a $400K worth missile. Well done, America.
The wannabe mach men dressed as US politicians wanted to act tough and shoot down something that is not doing any harm just a matter of principle. Nobody in the Chinese government would be genius enough to invest time and money in a project that has zero chance of gaining some form of benefit. If they want to know if there are cactuses in Montana, they could simply just ask.