According to this account, the US military has shot down the big, white Chinese balloon that has been drifting across North America at an altitude of 60,000 feet and driving some people crazy. There is also said to be a similar balloon crossing the sky of South America.
Photo: Brian Branch via AP
What is this all about anyway? The Chinese spokesmen say that the balloon is indeed of Chinese origin but not a government property, being a "private" weather balloon. The US describes it as a "spy" balloon, a device that could actually acquire information on the same level as a satellite. At an elevation of about 11 miles above the earth's surface, the big, white balloon is much closer than the general low orbit of other satellites at about 500 miles altitude. Since it probably is gathering information, it may very well have an advantage over a satellite in orbit due to its proximity, maybe like looking out the window of an American Airlines jet flying from Anchorage to Raleigh, North Carolina. Could a Chinese passenger have equipment in his checked baggage that might discover military secrets hidden in the fields below?
In another take on the situation, there's speculation that the big white balloon might have the capability of infecting the USA with some biological hazard, as the Chinese have already been blamed for the Wuhan flu that has devastated the entire earth.
If the big, white balloon has attached sophisticated equipment to gather and transmit information it's also possible that there could be a human pilot/operator manning that equipment. Shooting the balloon down may very well have killed that passenger, probably a valuable source of information in itself if he were taken alive. No one brought up that possibility.
Furthermore, if a US fighter pilot had failed to puncture the big white balloon would it have been allowed to continue on its way around the world? Was it ever meant to end up back in Chinese hands?
The size and appearance of the big white balloon means that its course across North America could hardly have been meant to be a secret. The thing was simply too obvious. The operation couldn't have been meant as a clandestine intelligence-gathering mission. It seems more likely that it was an opportunity to assess the attitudes and responses of the US government and military. Or it might have been an escaped weather balloon. There doesn't seem to have been any commentary made by the CIA. Maybe it falls outside of their sphere.
It may be unimportant to the general US population and probably meaningless to the US military but the cost of the AIM-9X Sidewinder missile used to let the gas out of the big white balloon is in excess of $420 thousand.
The responses to the big, white balloon relayed through the media mostly reflected anger and dismay that the Chinese should attempt such a violation of national sovereignty and that the US should take serious actions. Whaaaat? It's a balloon, maybe an errant one. The US, the richest and most militarily powerful entity in world history, should express concern over the lost, wandering Chinese balloon, express sympathy to those in charge of it, and perhaps set up a congressional committee to aid the Chinese in their further weather balloon adventures.
It would be of immense interest to have a translated transcript of the conversations at the highest level of Chinese decision-making where the pluses and minuses of this operation were discussed, if indeed such a discussion took place.
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