International Chinese Spy Balloon spotted flying over the Billings, Montana

[cottagecheesefan]

Lol, China just continues to smack this admin around. A few days after the Biden admin leaked the recent info to the press. China is asked and basically like, "nope, we have no idea and won't comment"

So was a random Chinese civilian or private company was not only able to do this to us, but also with no consequence? Can we not identify the company? Don't we know where it originated?

She even says drifting when the Biden admin says it was clearly being controleld and able to maneuver.

Of course they are lying, but it makes us look weak. Especially when China is going around making all these deals recently.

When pressed to talk about reports that the aircraft was able to gather intelligence about U.S. military infrastructure, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning insisted that the balloon was "civilian" owned.

"We have made it clear time and again that the unmanned Chinese civilian airship drifting over the U.S. was a purely unexpected and isolated event caused by force majeure," Mao said. "China firmly rejects distortion, hyping up and political manipulation of this unexpected and isolated event."

 

[LangfordBarrow]

What intel that can’t already be gathered with Google satellite photos?

It wasn't taking pictures but picking up signals outside the visible spectrum apparently.

 

[LangfordBarrow]

Couldn't someone drive around in the car and pick up the same signals?

The Ballon was carrying a bus sized satellite. The elevation probably helps it pick up signals from a larger area but it also might be too conspicuous driving a vehicle that size around sensitive military areas. As well as the difficulty in getting the equipment into the US in the first place.

 

[HomeCheese]

The Ballon was carrying a bus sized satellite. The elevation probably helps it pick up signals from a larger area but it also might be too conspicuous driving a vehicle that size around sensitive military areas. As well as the difficulty in getting the equipment into the US in the first place.

Wouldn't something that size show up on radar? How is flying it in the open better than driving?

 

[LangfordBarrow]

Doesn't that seem like bullshit? I mean, if I shoot up the top of the balloon portion, hot air... rises right out of those bullet holes and it's going down. It seems like the physics is straight forward.

I can't figure out the specifics but up that high the air pressure around the ballon is much lower so it's at least plausible. You'd think one of our pilots could at least sever the payload from the bottom of the balloon with their cannon.

 

[LangfordBarrow]

Wouldn't something that size show up on radar? How is flying it in the open better than driving?

Well how do you propose they get oversized equipment like that on a truck and on a US Interstate? Then near sensitive military facilities without drawing attention? Also if it transmits anything it could be spotted electronically and then all you'd need is a State Trooper to make a stop and you'd have all the equipment in pristine condition to reverse engineer.

 

[cottagecheesefan]

People want to know how Joe Biden and his admin is at all involved with backdoor dealings with CCP through Hunter? Well here is how influence peddling works. Keep in mind, Blinken is the one who organized the letter about the biden laptop that implicates Blinken (and Biden). Blinken also was the director of the Biden Penn Center that got big donations from the CCP.

Now we have emails that show Blinken used the balloon incident to hold off on sanctions and other measures that other officials had been working on. Plus Biden's team has their own classified list of things they are working on with China that they aren't sharing with other US officials? The admin also seems to be hiding the report about the balloon itself?

China has backed Russia, is actively trying to sink the dollar, among other things, and this admin lets China walk all over them lol





The delays to items on the department's "competitive actions" calendar, a classified rolling list of steps the Biden administration has planned related to China, have alarmed some U.S. officials and revealed a divide between those in the U.S. government pushing for tougher action against China and others advocating a more restrained approach.

While the State Department signaled U.S. displeasure over the balloon by postponing Secretary of State Antony Blinken's scheduled visit to Beijing, an internal State Department message reviewed by Reuters shows senior U.S. officials delaying planned actions against China.

Rick Waters, deputy assistant secretary of State for China and Taiwan who leads the China House policy division, said in a Feb. 6 email to staff that has not been previously reported: "Guidance from S (Secretary of State) is to push non-balloon actions to the right so we can focus on symmetric and calibrated response. We can revisit other actions in a few weeks."

The sources said many measures have yet to be revived. The decision to postpone export licensing rules for telecom equipment maker Huawei and sanctions against Chinese officials for abuses of Uyghurs, has damaged morale at China House, they said.

But the sources said the current policy hews too closely to an earlier strategy of engagement that enabled China to extract concessions in exchange for high-level dialogues that often yielded few tangible results.

In response to questions from Reuters, a senior State Department official said that under the Biden administration, the State Department had "coordinated with the interagency on a record-setting number of sanctions, export controls, and other competitive actions" toward China.

"Without commenting on specific actions, this work is sensitive and complex, and obviously sequencing is essential to maximize impact and make sure our messaging is clear and lands precisely," the official said.

One Chinese official confirmed to Reuters that a renewed Blinken visit would be more likely if the U.S. accommodated Beijing's wish to shelve the issue, adding that China had conveyed it did not want the FBI to release details of its investigation into the downed balloon.

The two sources said the FBI report had originally been anticipated for mid-April release.

The FBI declined to comment on any report. The State Department told Reuters it had never discussed the issue with the bureau and declined to comment on discussions with China over the matter.

 

[CantCucktheTuck]

Here we go again....basically same time as last year.

Hobbyist balloon detected over Western U.S. has left American airspace, officials say

The U.S. small, high-altitude balloon posed no threat to national security, the military said Friday.

www.cbsnews.com

Military tracking high-altitude balloon flying over Western U.S.​

 

[CantCucktheTuck]