Ex-Pentagon Analyst Doubts China Would Risk Sending Surveillance Balloon Over US
Sputnik – 04.02.2023
WASHINGTON – A former US defense official told Sputnik it is hard to imagine why China would risk sending an uncontrollable balloon with high-end surveillance equipment over the United States.
The Pentagon on Friday said it detected another Chinese surveillance balloon – this one transiting Latin America, which comes a day after the US identified the first one over Montana.
Beijing said the balloon over the US is a civilian airship intended for scientific research, however, Secretary of State Antony Blinken scrapped a high profile visit to China over the incident.
“It is hard to imagine why the Chinese would risk sending military-grade surveillance equipment in a vulnerable, uncontrollable balloon that cannot even be directed to a specific target,” former Pentagon analyst Chuck Spinney said. “These high altitude balloons basically go with the wind-flows.”
US constitutional historian and political commentator Dan Lazare said the US response has been a gross overreaction. Canceling an important diplomatic trip over something as trivial as this is absurd, he added.
China’s foreign ministry on Friday said the airship deviated far from its planned course and regrets the unintended entry into US airspace due to force majeure.
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When the Planet is criss-crossed with satellites capable of military surveillance without comment or investigation, it seems unlikely China would send a big balloon, visible from the ground without any optical aid, on military surveillance which the US engages in every day. This has shown how the ‘Pentagonists’ over-react to the slightest provocation, however implausible. China’s explanation is plausible, though it is puzzling why any research balloon would be so loose unless it was just to check where the wind would take it. Unfortunately, the incident has given Blinken an excuse not to talk to Beijing about Taiwan and ‘The Coming War with China’ predicted by John Pilger’s film – and of course, by Gen Mike Milihan, which the military and certain hegemonic interests in Washington obviously want, unfortunately for Humanity.
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Why do we not use the logical and simple solution. Give warning to the world that such balloons will be shot down and then shoot them down. All the fanfare and speculations and showcasing is quite sickening.
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