US frozen in paralysis as China violates airspace

The US government found itself paralyzed to respond to a Chinese surveillance balloon which traveled across the United States before being shot down Saturday off the South Carolina coast.

The balloon, which was reportedly 200 feet high and held the equivalent of a jetliner’s payload, flew over the continental US from January 28^th to February 4^th. On February 1^st it was spotted over Montana by a civilian. The Pentagon said it was aware of the balloon and had closed the airspace to civilian air traffic.

But the federal government and its media operatives seemed uncoordinated and unprepared to explain to the American people why no action had been taken. 

At first, mainstream media reported that the balloon posed no military or physical threat to Americans, which is why it waited days to take action. Then the New York Times reported that the Biden administration knew about the balloon the whole time but had kept mum to avoid alerting the Chinese government it knew of the object, which had been spotted by a civilian from his office. Then news outlets reported that Biden ordered the balloon shot down but his advisers told him to hold off to avoid damage from fallen debris. 

Then, media reported that three such balloons entered US airspace during the Trump administration, a claim refuted by Trump, former Trump National Security Advisers John Bolton and Robert O’Brien, former Acting National Intelligence Director Richard Grenell, former National Intelligence Doctor John Ratcliffe, former Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for East Asia Heino Klinck, former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper and former Acting Defense Secretary Chris Mille.

Nevertheless, media outlets continued to make the claim, though when referring to such incidents occurring under the Trump administration, the language changed to “Chinese incursions”.

“Chinese spy balloon incursion reveals past US intelligence failings,” said the Financial Times.

“Previous Chinese Balloon Incursions Initially Went Undetected,” said the New York Times.

“U.S. military failed to detect prior Chinese incursions, general says,” wrote the Washington Post.

Indeed, NORAD Commander Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck in a press conference Monday described the previous incursions as “threats” and said he did not know whether the balloon had explosives in it, but assumed that it did.

“Yeah, so I can't confirm whether it had explosives or not. Anytime you down something like this, we make an assumption that that potential exists. We did not associate the potential of having explosives with a threat to dropping weapons, those kinds of things, but out of a precaution, abundance of safety for not only our military people and the public, we have to make assumptions such as that,” said VanHerck.

The military commander did not say how he knew the balloon would not drop weapons or “those kinds of things”.

In sum, a large, mysterious Chinese surveillance device believed to contain explosives invaded US airspace and was allowed to leisurely travel the breadth of the continental United States for a nearly a week.

Such an incursion might easily be seen by other countries as an act of war; indeed, according to some military and legal experts, the Chinese spy balloon would constitute casus belli.

Colonel Yevgeny Vindman, who served as the deputy legal adviser on the White House National Security Council (NSC), argues in a lengthy treatise that legally, a cyberattack by a foreign country which simply breaches critical data or systems — even in the absence of actual damage to the systems — would and “should” constitute casus belli. A foreign explosive surveillance machine which invades US airspace, therefore, would seemingly demand a strong military response.

But instead, the Biden administration is expressing excitement at discovering what was inside the Chinese object as divers work to collect the debris from the Atlantic Ocean.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby called the incident “a terrific opportunity to gain a better understanding, to study the capabilities of this balloon.”

“The time that we had to study this balloon over the course of a few days last week, we believe was important and will give us a lot more clarity, not only on the capabilities that these balloons have, but what China is trying to do with them,” he said.

“Our efforts to surveil this balloon and what we will learn from the recovery will prove to be valuable,” Kirby added. 

“Shooting the balloon down over water wasn't just the safest option, it might maximize the chance of recovering the payload,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Monday.