[Bob Ireland]

One interesting fact about this balloon is its track eastward to Hawaii. All media renderings of normal Pacific balloon tracks from China to North America show a path curving north past Japan towards the Aleutian Islands. But early reporting concerning the track of the Chinese surveillance balloon that transversed the United States and was subsequently shot down off of the east coast said that it approached Hawaii and then made a sharp turn northward.

Surveillance of some area in the Hawaiian Islands is obviously of interest to the source of the trans-Pacific balloons as are areas on the North American continent. The maneuver of the sharp turn north towards Alaska proves a sophisticated navigational capability of these balloons and argues against the traditional analysis that they are simply slaves to wind patterns.

[_longranger81]

There is nothing to say a balloon needs to be launched from China to be Chinese. They could be launched from a boat of any size, or brought into another country and launched there.