Chinese Spy Balloon
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Yeah, it was a spy balloon, and we didn't do anything about it until it was too late.
The Chinese spy balloon that flew across the U.S. was able to gather intelligence from several sensitive American military sites, despite the Biden administration’s efforts to block it from doing so, according to two current senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration official.
China was able to control the balloon so it could make multiple passes over some of the sites (at times flying figure eight formations) and transmit the information it collected back to Beijing in real time, the three officials said. The intelligence China collected was mostly from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or include communications from base personnel, rather than images, the officials said.
The three officials said China could have gathered much more intelligence from sensitive sites if not for the administration’s efforts to move around potential targets and obscure the balloon’s ability to pick up their electronic signals by stopping them from broadcasting or emitting signals.
The balloon first entered U.S. airspace over Alaska on Jan. 28, according to the Biden administration, which said it was tracking it as it moved. Within the next four days, the balloon was flying over Montana — specifically Malmstrom Air Force Base, where the U.S. stores some of its nuclear assets.
At the time, the U.S. government said it waited to shoot the balloon down until it was over the ocean to avoid any damage or casualties on the ground. The balloon, which was nearly as large as three school buses, would have had a large debris field that U.S. officials could not control as it fell to the earth.
“U.S. military commanders had determined downing the balloon while over land posed an undue risk to people across a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a written statement after the balloon was downed.
"It was dangerous to shoot down. That's our story and we're sticking to it."
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Biden: The Chinese leadership knew nothing:
Q On China, Mr. President: Can Secretary Blinken ease tensions with China on this trip, do you think?
THE PRESIDENT: Sure. Well, look, China has some legitimate difficulties unrelating to the — unrelated to the United States. And I think one of the things that that balloon caused was not so much that it got shot down, but I don’t think the leadership knew where it was and knew what was in it and knew what was going on. It was — I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional.
What the actual hell....
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Proclaiming publicly that the CCP's leadership is ignorant or has lost control over what's going on are fighting words! They would consider it more insulting (and more damaging to their domestic image) to be accused of incompetence than it is to be accused of malice.
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Interesting observation, Ax, and I think you are right.
I'm working closely with a Chinese analyst who, while he has been here 13 years, is still guided by his upbringing and Chinese culture. I find myself studying the topic of guanxi and starting to understand how he views relationships with his co-workers. It's challenging and at times frustrating. The guy is technically brilliant, but his ways are often not received well by his American co-workers. My real task here is not the amount of technical work I do, but to help the team learn to work more effectively with him.
"My pronouns are FA/FO." - Mik, 2024
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@Mik said in Chinese Spy Balloon:
Interesting observation, Ax, and I think you are right.
It's challenging and at times frustrating. The guy is technically brilliant, but his ways are often not received well by his American co-workers.
Can you cite any specifics?
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Recent Interview with Gen. Milley
>After the Navy raised the wreckage from the bottom of the Atlantic, technical experts discovered the balloon's sensors had never been activated while over the Continental United States.
But by then, the damage to U.S.-China relations had been done. On May 21, President Biden remarked, "This silly balloon that was carrying two freight cars' worth of spying equipment was flying over the United States, and it got shot down, and everything changed in terms of talking to one another."
So, Martin asked, "Bottom line, it was a spy balloon, but it wasn't spying?"
Milley replied, "I would say it was a spy balloon that we know with high degree of certainty got no intelligence, and didn't transmit any intelligence back to China."
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@taiwan_girl said in Chinese Spy Balloon:
So, Martin asked, "Bottom line, it was a spy balloon, but it wasn't spying?"
Milley replied, "I would say it was a spy balloon that we know with high degree of certainty got no intelligence, and didn't transmit any intelligence back to China."
Another way to put that is "I didn't inhale."
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Even if the professional intelligence personnel say "the spy balloon is not spying," the politicians would still grand-stand and claim that (1) you cannot be sure that it's not spying, and (2) demand that it be shot down on a race to appear most hawkish on national security. The military would still get pressured by these politicians to shoot down the spy balloon that they're pretty sure wasn't actually spying.
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Here we go again...
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/military-tracking-balloon-western-us-military/?linkId=335267968
The U.S. is tracking a high-altitude balloon flying over the Western part of the country, U.S. officials told CBS News. Military aircraft have spotted the balloon and determined it is not a threat, but its origin and purpose are still unknown, the officials said.
Sources familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the balloon was drifting east in the jetstream on Friday at an altitude of more than 40,000 feet. Its presence prompted enough concern that the military sent aircraft to investigate.
One official said the balloon was over Colorado earlier in the day and was expected to be over Georgia by Friday night. The official said the balloon appeared to be made of Mylar and had a small cube-shaped box, about two feet long on each side, hanging below it.
The developments come one year after tensions between the U.S. and China ratcheted to new heights after a Chinese balloon carrying sophisticated spying equipment flew over the continental U.S. for several days.
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"My pronouns are FA/FO." - Mik, 2024
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@Mik said in Chinese Spy Balloon:
the information were not of some value, even if it's tracking wind drift.
Surely the balloon's owner is carefully tracking any and all reactions to the balloon. Any radar tracking, especially from weapons or interception by aircraft or drones will be duly noted.
Hopefully we having guys watching the balloon and learning from it.
