Gibberish. Any balloon can be shot down.
From a senior US Government official not allowed to speak publicly on the issue:
“We put some things on station in the event that a decision was made to bring this down while it was over Montana,” the official said. “We wanted to make sure…to empty out the airspace around that potential area. But even with those protective measures taken—and it was the judgment of our military commanders—that didn’t drive the risk down low enough, so we didn’t take the shot.”
https://time.com/6252551/chinese-weather-balloon-shoot-down/
Yep, hogwash. If it was a jet it wouldn’t last 15 minutes. The excuses are rather pathetic.