China knows what it’s doing. It pushes harder and harder because it knows that western nations are weak and will back down.
And we never disappoint.
The U.S. tracked what officials described as a Chinese reconnaissance balloon over the continental states this week, in what would be an aggressive act of intelligence gathering over sensitive American national security sites.
The balloon sighting came days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken was to make a planned trip to Beijing, according to U.S. officials, throwing into question efforts to repair relations between the two powers who are at odds over a host of global and regional issues.
There’s nothing accidental about the timing.
Two Air Force F-22 fighters scrambled from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada to Montana, where the balloon was observed, before the administration decided not to shoot it down.
Shooting it down would be aggressive. It would mean committing and taking a stand. So that’s a no-go.
The U.S. maintains an arsenal of 150 nuclear-armed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. A senior defense official said the U.S. government was taking steps to shield sensitive sites, but added that the reconnaissance systems on the balloon were presumed to have “limited additive value” beyond what the Chinese could gather from their low-earth-orbit satellites.
“Presumed”. “Limited”.
But don’t worry, Biden sent a strong message.
The Chinese embassy in Washington didn’t respond to a request for comment. Following the incident, the State Department summoned China’s chargé d’affaires in Washington, Xu Xueyuan, “to deliver a very clear and stark message,” a U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal.
“We will be very angry. And then we will write a letter telling you how angry we are.”
One U.S. official said China had previously sent high-altitude surveillance balloons over the continental U.S. “It’s pretty low risk for them,” the official said
It certainly is.
“I would invite my colleagues in China to meet us halfway there and work hard to keep those lines of communication open,” Mr. Austin said in January. But the Chinese haven’t engaged in a top level dialogue with Mr. Austin following that appeal.
This is not how a world power acts. Or even any country with self-respect. We’re back in the Obama era.
I started imagining the consternation of Biden’s handlers, when he wanted to shoot it down 🙂
All,
There is a lot of information missing or not known in this “spy balloon” article. However, the general theme is that this particular episode should not be tolerated, and there should be consequences for it being allowed to happen and continue.
Michael
All,
And we are not a democracy.
Michael
Why put “spy balloon” in scare quotes. That’s what it obviously is. Do you believe the Chinese claim it is an off-course weather balloon? I’m old enough to remember Eisenhower telling the Russians Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 was an off-course weather plane – until it turned out they had captured Powers.
Strolling down memory lane, that was a brilliant trick by Khrushchev, not to reveal that the Russians had captured the pilot, Powers, until USA had put out that fake story. There are other details that are faintly coming back to me also. Like USA didn’t know the Russians had missiles that could hit that high? I’m not sure about that one.
And Xi, Beijing Biden’s master.
They couldn’t ask Ron Klain what to do because he was celebrating himself at his Au Revoir-I’m-leaving party.
lol, good one Onzeur 🙂
He’s probably still crying like a bitch.
“nobody Fs with a Biden”
Yeah, right
What a sign of weakness. And 6 more years of it to come.
This just becomes a bigger embarrassment as more information comes in and the day goes on.
Taiwan…………dont sweat it—we have your back.
WTH we wont even protect our own air space.
Can you even believe the excuse they’re giving, that they’re afraid that debris will hurt people on the ground. Montana is one of the most sparsely populated states in the country. It’s the best place to shoot it down. Or maybe they could put their heads together and use electronic warfare capabilities to jam its ability to up-link the data it’s gathering to Chinese space satellites. Our leadership is incompetent and pathetic. What a strong signal it’s sending to China. I’m sure the CCP respects us for our restraint. (sarc)
Yeah, he’s always been such a blowhard. Many weaklings are. They stupidly think it conceals their weakness when it actually highlights it.
This is a real tell on yourself. I’ll have to remember this one.
Wow Daniel, I have to wonder if General Miley immediately called China to ask if there is anything he can do to help, that America won’t be shooting down a balloon supposedly the size of 3 buses that he has no idea if on it has some form of a delivery system of any kind whether it be chemical or military. Feeling so safe knowing that the Trillions spent on defense in my 70 years that we didn’t see it over the Pacific and once it hit American waters didn’t blow it out of the skies.
It should’e bee captured when it was over the Aleutians.
I believe the exact quote from the US was “Just wait until your father gets home.” and “No dinner for you.” and “Go to your room.” I believe these messages were clear and impactful to help the Chinese adjust their attitude. Yup.
Well, to the Biden maladministration shooting down a Chinese espionage platform would be racist. What a disgrace.
enough of a disgrace to seriously discourage Trump so that’s sufficient.
Why would the disgrace of this administration discourage Trump? I would think it would encourage all possible alternative candidates.
We could then just have another “ Asian month” to try to blame the balloon on Trump hurting Asians feelings with his pronunciation of the word “China” or his accurate notion that the Covid bioweapon came out of the Chinese Wuhan lab.
We need more Google cartoons and identity victim group months sobbing about hurt feelings.
We would be back in the Obama era if the Obama era ever ended or even had a brief respite. There was no such respite. There was only flag waving which is good enough for Levin and Faux News.
There was a four year revival.
There was some sort of respite perhaps on foreign policy but that’s subordinate to domestic policy realistically.
I mean if your domestic policy is bad enough nobody needs to care about your foreign policy sans your legacy assets. Sort of like with Putin. Big legacy assets.
This might even explain the romantic interlude between big sections of MAGA and Putin but China doesn’t care.
They already own your health policy and institutions. What else do they need to own?
Even the military generals.
What do you own? Your illusions about yourself?
Once you buy half way in it’d be better if you bought whole thing
In for a penny, in for a pound.
That’s a funny thing, if you have a good stack of chips, and make a small bet, just to see the next card, you often end up losing the whole stack.
Una, for the love of God, please combine your multiple comments from now on.
At the end of the day what you have is presidential candidate who sounds memeable when’s he’s engaging the media on stupid issues but has no clue otherwise which is why he got rid of Cruz.
Have you ever seen anybody as happy to be the prospective favourite for the nomination if he didn’t get it already? The guy is about as ecstatic as McCarthy was to get the nod. I don’t think he’ll take to completion but maybe he will. and do nothing. Circumstances are pretty dire. But you have ever seen anybody as ecstatic? He’s got a whole Bush dynasty to build.
If Salus is so alert to Trump’s deficiencies perhaps he [ an assumption ] should groom himself for office.
Is balloon monitoring the prelude to attack?
Would not any President NOT in the enemy pocket have already brought it down?
I mean the guy is so thrilled to have power over us he won’t exercise except to our detriment. But he will be at the centre of things and everyone will be talking about him.
If china were to attack, would he surrender immediately if they agreed to let him stay in perpetual presidency?
You know he would.
Any person that has studied history knows just how many time such scenarios have taken place.
We are in deep poop.
A satrap. Yeah, that cowardly traitor would accept that in a heartbeat, even knowing full well he wouldn’t be up to the job, just like he isn’t up to his current position.
Spy balloons over Montana are what Montana always desperately wanted, It’s like nobody knows they exist. Aside from a River Runs Through It. Which it didn’t. Maybe they should have sculpted themselves after Mississippi Burning?
“Yellowstone” is one of the most popular shows on TV and it’s set in Montana. It’s already spawned two spin-offs which are even better, which chronicle the Dutton family’s trials and tribulations getting to Montana and having to fight to keep their ranch after that; 1883, with Sam Elliot, and 1922, with Harrison Ford, which is the best one.
I highly recommend 1922. 1883 is over so you can watch the whole series. Episode #5 of 1922 comes out on Sunday. It even has two UK actors in it, Timothy Dalton and Jerome Flynn, both of whom I like.
The theme is that there are always people who want to take what you have and you have to fight to keep it.
To solve this problem now and in the furure, we need to do something about the pay gap between Biden’s piddly salary from us taxpayers and Biden’s splendid salary from China. This balloon thing is just one example of the Commander-in-Chef following the money.
But something else may be at work. This week, two of my Amazon packages are in places unknown with unknown arrival times. Maybe China is going after Jeff Bezos’ supply lines.
It is exactly what it seems to be.
Push back has been basically zero. There’s been stuff but nothing beyond gag reflex.
That’s because Beijing Biden is bought and paid for by China.
For the very simple reason that the GOP and Trump are as bought into this future as anybody else.
The balloon changes course by Chinese control. Last I knew it was over St Louis and circled back and South over Kansas. The Chicoms claim it’s a weather balloon gone astray. You can always count on the Chinks to tell child like lies.
Interesting how so many Chinese spies were caught before and around Covid launching…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_spy_cases_in_the_United_States_of_America
The EPA called Joe. They said shooting that balloon in Montana will kill three of our moose. Now we’re gonna have World War III. Therefore do not shoot it down. We don’t care how many photos they take of our ballistic missiles.LOL or crying?
Thank you President xi for giving the go ahead to shoot down the balloon.
Just one other little thing…….The chinese were controlling the balloon—-how?
Using a radio frequency—signal—of coarse.
Can a radio frequency be jammed—-of coarse.
So if ”we” were not going to shoot it down–why not at least jam the freq so the chinese could not control it?
Why hasnt the ”press” asked this question? Hmmmm
Welp, this article aged like milk. Now, lets look at your more recent blog posts and see how much you change your tune for momentary advantage.