A giant balloon initially spotted over Montana is a spy balloon sent to visit the U.S. by China. Secretary of State Blinken was about to fly to China for negotiations. But because the Chinese violated American airspace, Blinken announced he was postponing his trip.
“It is unacceptable that this has occurred. After consultations with our interagency partners, as well as with Congress, we have concluded that the conditions are not right at this moment for Secretary Blinken to travel to China,” a senior official said.
The secretary of state has been communicating with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, regarding this incident and the U.S. government is maintaining open lines of communication with the People’s Republic of China, officials said.
Team Foggy Bottom correctly described the balloon visit as a blatant violation of American sovereignty. And China claimed the Balloon wasn’t supposed to fly to the U.S. but veered far off course due to the wind currents. Nobody is buying it. They say China’s story is full of bull dumplings. The Balloon is floating high (60,000 feet), much higher than the average military or passenger plane. ”
As it entered the airspace of the continental U.S., the first Americans to see it were:
At a press conference today, Pentagon spokesperson Brig. General Pat Ryder said:
“The balloon continues to move eastward and is currently over the center of the continental United States. Again, we currently assess that the balloon does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground at this time, “It’ll probably be over the United States for a few days,” he added.
This afternoon The National Weather Service in Kansas City, Missouri, posted photos of a giant balloon visible from their office in Pleasant Hill and the KC Metro that appeared to be headed southeast. “We have confirmed that it is not an NWS weather balloon,” NWS Kansas City said.
Pentagon spokesperson. On Friday night, Gen. Pat Ryder told Fox News that “We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon.”
Biden will probably ignore that one. He’s never concerned when something or someone in Latin America moves north and sneaks into the U.S.
People are demanding the military shoot down the Balloon over the U.S., but the military says they can’t shoot it down :
But so far, officials have determined that the potential damage of falling debris outweighs the risk of the balloon itself, which they said does not have the ability to bring in more intelligence than spy satellites in low Earth orbit, which China already uses.
“Why not shoot it down? We have to do the risk-reward here,” a senior defense official said on Thursday. “So the first question is, does it pose a threat, a physical kinetic threat, to individuals in the United States in the US homeland? Our assessment is it does not. Does it pose a threat to civilian aviation? Our assessment is it does not. Does it pose a significantly enhanced threat on the intelligence side? Our best assessment right now is that it does not. So given that profile, we assess the risk of downing it, even if the probability is low in a sparsely populated area of the debris falling and hurting someone or damaging property, that it wasn’t worth it.”
There is a way to get it out of the sky. Tell Macy’s if they capture the Balloon and take it down from the sky. They can paint it yellow, draw a smiley face on it and use it in their Thanksgiving parade.
Ultimately, the balloon was shot down by U.S. planes over the Atlantic Ocean off the Eastern Seaboard of the US on Saturday, CNN noted.
