Posted on 02/06/2023 5:02:03 AM PST by FarCenter
That’s what great powers do, so get used to it
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Consider this: The Chinese military has operated such endoatmospheric satellites over the hotly contested South China Sea for years. These balloons are cheap but effective tools for surveillance– and targeting. They are used by China to track US Navy warships transiting the South China Sea. The surveillance equipment is provided by China’s major technology firm Huawei.
To protect its own wounded political image at home, the Biden Administration has since released information that China launched three similar balloons into the United States during the Trump administration and the forty-fifth president did not respond. This behavior in the context of great power rivalry really is nothing new.
The recent comments by the American officials are clearly concerning to China. Given the trajectory of the Chinese spy balloon, it is obvious that it was surveying America’s nuclear weapons arsenal.
Plus, the altitude of the Chinese balloon gave it clear line-of-sight to sensitive US military satellites operating in low-Earth orbit. Beyond that, the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah – Area 52 – is the home of America’s hypersonic weapons tests.
Given China’s clear supremacy in hypersonic weapon technology, all these points of interest were likely the targets of the Chinese intelligence collection mission. They want to know if America is actually going to war, and if so war against whom and how China will be impacted by it.
This event was a nuisance and a terrible failure in deterrence on the part of the Biden Administration. The infernal balloon should’ve been shot down when it was over the Aleutians, not after it had traversed the whole North American continent.
The spy balloon’s presence over American skies was not, however, the end of the world.
Standing ready but being responsible
America must be vigilant awaiting the time when China seeks to upend the international order by force – which I believe it will. But Washington must balance that need for vigilance with the responsibility to maintain stability as best as it can – especially at a time as critical as the one we find ourselves in.
The last thing we need to be doing is picking fights with nuclear-armed Russia and China simultaneously. Washington must prepare for war without courting it. It is time for Americans to recognize the new geopolitical moment we find ourselves in and to recognize that the Chinese actions, while disturbing to the domestic peace, are normal in the context of great power relations.
We will do similar things to China and they will become angry at us for that.
America must do a better job of defending its airspace and deterring future behavior without escalating into the irrational area we all seem heading toward on this subject.
Finally, Americans must recognize that, as we are a great power, our behavior and our words affect the world. We should not be surprised when the world reacts to what we say and do, any more than our rivals should be offended when we respond to the questionable things they do and say.
Welcome to great power competition in the twenty-first century. Grin and bear it.
Trying to reach as many people as possible about their car warranty?
Be aware that like the Ukraine Russian war threads is filled with Russian sycophants, trolls, and hangers on, China threads are even more likely to be filled with the same sorts of commenters - worse, because there is so much Chinese propaganda everywhere, and they pay their trolls far better then the Russians.
They were too cheap to send flowers.
Maybe Xi sent the balloon so that he wouldn’t have to have dinner with that insufferable Tony Blinken.
aybe Xi sent the balloon so that he wouldn’t have to have dinner with that insufferable Tony Blinken.
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Blinken’s best friends, Wynken and Nod, are even worse
China sent a balloon as a dry run for spreading the next generation of bioweapon cooked up in Wuhan, or setting up for an EMP strike.
We have been trying to reach you regarding your car’s expired warranty.
Really despise the propaganda of Asia Times.
What about the Biden syncophants, trolls, and hangers on who swallow and regurgitate all the bullshit the neoliberals in Washington are peddling?
Are you “concerned” at all about them?
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The author is Brandon J Weichert.
Doesn’t seem like a total leftist.
And it started with giving over a BILLION dollars to the corrupt Biden family while groper Joe was VP under Obama! ..... imho
To show Americans and the world that Biden is their bitch
What about the Biden syncophants, trolls, and hangers on who swallow and regurgitate all the bullshit the neoliberals in Washington are peddling? Are you “concerned” at all about them?
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Well, I’m more concerned by Pootie trolls on FR, like yourself.
"Now that the Great Balloon Panic of 2023 has passed us blown over..."
“Given the trajectory of the Chinese spy balloon”
I’m having trouble believing that the trajectory of a non-propelled balloon can be controlled as accurately as claimed.
If China were going to run a realistic spying operation using unguided balloons, wouldn’t they have to launch dozens of them, hoping a few might go somewhere useful?
If it turns out to be a weather balloon, I’m not sure our government will confess that.
“What could they possible spot on the ground that can’t be seen with their own satellites or Google Earth?”
My thoughts also.
Quite amusing!!
—”At 60,000 feet the horizon is 300 miles away. So take the path of the balloon and draw a parallel line 300 miles on each side and that’s what could be visually observed. Hopefully we can retrieve the payload from the ocean and tear it apart to see it’s capabilities.”
TikTok is the Chinese Spy Balloon in your pocket
“However, TikTok is basically a Chinese Communist Party Commissar that you keep in your pocket. Not only can TikTok analyze your data, but it may be able to influence your political opinion by steering you to videos it wants you to see.”
~1 Minuite video.
https://youtube.com/shorts/k43Pceu7fRM?feature=share
McBeth is former career Army now a computer security guy.
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