The China of the Secretary of State Reacted to the Biden High-Altitude Ballooning Overture in the U.S. after the State of the Union

Biden’s response marks the second time this week that he’s sought to downplay the effect of what US officials deemed a “brazen” act by Beijing to send an intelligence gathering balloon across several US states – with signs it loitered over key military installations.

“The idea shooting down a balloon that’s gathering information over America and that makes relations worse?” Biden spoke to Judy Woodruff after his State of the Union address.

The balloon had left Canada and entered the Lower 48. Multiple sources familiar with the intelligence told CNN that concerns that the balloon had been sent by Beijing to spy on the US were confirmed when NORAD observed it loitering over sensitive military facilities.

The Secretary of State was forced to delay a trip to Beijing due to the balloon incursion, which cut into the time Biden would have had with the Chinese president. That meeting was designed to cool tensions that had been rising between the two powers throughout Biden’s opening weeks in office, with Blinken’s follow-up visit to China considered the next marker in the effort.

Biden administration officials have stressed that the meeting was not canceled, but instead delayed until a later date. That date has not yet been set.

Asked by CNN this week if US officials had any indication as to why China would commit such an overt act, Biden laughed off the question. He said they were the Chinese government.

The Biden administration has maintained that they were able to mitigate any intelligence collection capacity of the balloon and have responded that they will end up benefiting from the ability to collect information about the balloon and Chinese intelligence capabilities.

The Chinese Communist Party’s use of a high-altitude balloon over the U.S. is a blatant violation of United States sovereignty, according to a House resolution to be voted on Thursday.

Some Republican lawmakers have raised pointed questions about why the Biden administration did not move to shoot down the balloon before it crossed down into the continental US – either while it was over Alaska or sooner.

Why the Pentagon didn’t tell Congress about the Russian invasion of Ukraine? The Pentagon and armed services secretary general asked Wicker and Rubio to address a Pentagon intelligence briefing

And he detailed a telling observation he shared with Xi last year as US officials warned China not to provide military support to Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.

The report was disseminated through the government channels that are accessible. But it wasn’t flagged as an urgent warning and top defense and intelligence officials who saw it weren’t immediately alarmed by it, according to sources. The report states that President Joe Biden was not briefed on the report and that the White House was not made aware of it.

Instead of treating it as an immediate threat, the US moved to investigate the object, seeing it as an opportunity to observe and collect intelligence.

Even though officials are watching the balloon, there is little reason to be alarmed. At the time, according to US officials, this balloon was expected to sail over Alaska and continue on a northern trajectory that intelligence and military officials could track and study.

The original report from the Defense Intelligence Agency doesn’t mention the balloon until it is over US territory, even as fresh revelations have arisen about what the US knew.

Senate staff kept pressing the military officials about who knew what and when. On Wednesday, Rubio and Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Biden’s top defense and intelligence officials raising questions about the administration’s decision-making after the balloon crossed into Alaskan airspace.

A subtle shift in urgency was reflected by NORAD sending up fighter jets when the balloon entered US airspace near Alaska on January 28.

Military officials said that it is not surprising that the president wasn’t briefed until January 31, since he had expectations for the balloon.

As more information about the administration’s decision-making process on the balloon has continued to trickle out, Congress has taken a keen interest.

The Story of Shot Down Unidentified Objects in Airspace: The Case for Airspace Freedom in the U.S. and the Defence of Airspace

“There are still a lot of questions to be asked about Alaska,” a Senate Republican aide told CNN. The United States is not the same as Alaska, and transiting without telling anyone is okay.

One pilot took a selfie in the cockpit that shows both the pilot and the surveillance balloon itself, these officials said – an image that has already gained legendary status in both NORAD and the Pentagon.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner said Sunday he prefers how the US shot down unidentified objects over North American airspace in recent days to allowing them to traverse the country.

A US fighter jet shot down an unidentified object over northern Canada on Saturday, marking the third time in a week that the US military has taken down objects in North American airspace. On Friday, an object was shot down in Alaska by a US F-22 and a Chinese surveillance balloon was taken down by F-22s off the coast of South Carolina.

“I would prefer them to be trigger-happy than to be permissive, but we’re going to have to see whether or not this is just the administration trying to change headlines,” Turner, an Ohio Republican, said of the Biden administration in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

This shows that we have to declare our intent to defend our airspace, which is probably more important to our policy discussion. Turner said that they need to invest. “This shows some of the problems and gaps that we have. We need to fill those quickly because we know there is a threat.

There’s no indication at this point that the unidentified objects have any connection to China’s surveillance balloon but it seems that national security officials across the continent remain on edge. Airspace was briefly closed over Montana before being reopened on Saturday evening after a radar anomaly prompted a jet to investigate before the all-clear was given.

The Scale of China in espionage on the U.S. Is Unprecedented, but Isn’t

“This is particularly annoying about this administration. He wants the Biden administration to come and brief us, instead of using television sets to do it. “I do think that there needs to be more engagement between the administration and Congress.”

“It’s certainly a new, recent development that you have China being so aggressive in entering other countries’ airspace and doing so for clear intentions to spy with very sophisticated equipment. Turner said Sunday that the scale of this balloon and technology that was deployed by China in espionage on the United States is unprecedented.