China's surveillance balloon was a giant middle finger to America, and the subsequent US response now sets the stage for the communist power to retaliate in the world's most contested airspace, writes Professor Joseph M. Siracusa.
After the Aleutian Islands, the balloon – the size of three school buses – passed over western Canada, and re-entered American airspace over northern Idaho and Montana.
This balloon, they say, was designed for spying and Beijing was “trying to fly this balloon over sensitive sites”.Sometimes, two plus two does, indeed, equal four.The US high command mobilised F-22 jets to take it out but Joe Biden, caving to his military advisers, decided not to shoot the balloon down - ostensibly because of the risk to folks on the ground.
This was too much for Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, who cancelled the long sought, most senior trip of the Biden administration to China, on the grounds that Beijing not only violated American sovereignty but also international law.“This balloon,” said House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul, “should never have been allowed to enter US airspace. It now poses a direct and ongoing national security threat to the US homeland.
My guess is Beijing now has what it believes is the perfect jurisdictional pretext to bring down a US plane in China’s contested airspace high above its claims in the South China Sea.
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