China just can’t let the Biden Balloon Blunder go. They’re still claiming that the spycraft was an innocent civilian observation platform and have now accused the U.S. of flying their own spy balloons over Chinese territory.
On Monday, Beijing accused Washington of “illegally” flying high-altitude balloons over its airspace more than 10 times since last year, calling the U.S. the “world’s largest surveillance empire.”
China is trying to deflect blame by accusing the U.S. of doing the same thing, only worse. They tried something similar during the pandemic when they kept trying to claim that the virus didn’t originate in China and, in fact, began in the U.S.
The first response from China to the presence of the balloon over U.S. airspace was conciliatory. But as the controversy lingered, China abandoned all pretense of civility and has now lashed out viciously with lies no one believes.
Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, described China’s claims as “a sort of one-upmanship tit-for-tat against Washington’s accusations.”
“It appears more like Beijing is trying to also portray itself as a victim of US surveillance, instead of being painted over the past week as an aggressor,” he said.
On Monday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson also accused the US of frequently sending warships and planes to carry out close-range reconnaissance against China, which the spokesman claimed amounted to a total of 657 times last year – and 64 times this January in the South China Sea.
There is absolutely nothing illegal about using our ships and planes to spy on China as long as they respect international boundaries. China is urinating in a hurricane, and they know it.
Drew Thompson, a senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, called China’s latest tactic “a large case of what-aboutism.”
“They’re not addressing the gross violation of US sovereignty that occurred with the surveillance balloon over Montana. They are trying to see perhaps some sort of false equivalency but they’re struggling to do that. I think they’re largely signaling their own population to ensure that they’re not overly caught up in the contradiction of China’s position,” he said.
“And it’s been quite contradictory. And it’s largely directed towards the domestic audience, which is why I think it lacks credibility with the other countries,” he added.
Thompson is a former State Department official and swears the U.S. doesn’t conduct balloon reconnaissance in other nations’ airspace unless it’s a “cooperative operation.” Presumably, that’s so blame could be shared if the balloon is discovered.
“‘Everybody spies’ is a poorly considered trope that does not justify China’s intrusion in other countries’ airspace. How countries conduct surveillance and reconnaissance matters, just as respect for international law, and the Law of the Sea matters,” Thompson said.
Meanwhile, UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena) are regularly being discovered and shot down. The reason for the sudden increase in sightings is both technical and a case of public relations by the Pentagon. According to the Wall Street Journal, sensors, radars, and other intelligence tools failed to detect the slow-moving ballons because they were set to detect supersonic or near-supersonic objects. Once the sensors were reset, NORAD began to detect the smaller, slower, still unidentified objects. They’re also detecting civilian prop-driven aircraft, drones, and flocks of birds.
After a few weeks, the sensors will be reset again — after the political panic in Washington has run its course. But the bad feelings that have been generated by these incidents aren’t going away any time soon.
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