A balloon in the stratosphere punctures US-China ties

The deployment and timing of such systems could have been geared towards salvaging the image of the Communist Party.

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On 4 February 2023, US President Joe Biden ordered the Pentagon to shoot down a massive Chinese airship over the US territorial waters, which, according to Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of Defence, was being used by the PRC in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States.” The US had detected the balloon on 28 January, but the shooting was delayed until the balloon was over water off the coast of South Carolina to avoid any collateral damage.

Mao Ning, the spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the US of overreaction” RK NitE) and adamantly using force” HBR 7) on a civilian nature unmanned airship that entered the US airspace due to force majeure and didn’t pose any threat to any person or to US security. She said that the US should have handled the incident properly in a calm 4#), professional manner, without resorting to force EGF). Interestingly, in 2019, Xinlang Junshi Sina military news) filed a story of J-10C launching a Thunderbolt 10 missile to shoot down a foreign super high altitude reconnaissance balloon. The writer says, the whole operation was very exciting.” Undoubtedly, the recent incident has further punctured the US-China relations, and Antony Blinken’s scheduled visit to China became the first casualty of this. Why should a civilian” balloon cause such a furore in the US as well as in China? Or, is there more to it than meets the eye?