Sunday, February 5, 2023

The Balloon and US-China Relations

 Roughly a week after it entered United States airspace, a suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down by a United States F-22 fighter jet off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday. The Chinese foreign ministry claimed it to be a civilian research balloon that accidentally drifted out of China and condemn the US's handling of the situation, calling it "clearly overreacting." There are worries among US citizens that the balloon was not eliminated soon enough and that China had obtained all the information they needed. However, President Biden has mentioned that he wanted the balloon shot down several days earlier. Nonetheless, it appears that this is a win-win situation for China: obtain surveillance information of the United States mainland and paint the United States in a bad light by calling attention to their "aggression."

Joseph Kaminski

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