ANALYSIS – It now turns out that the hi-tech Chinese spy balloon shot down over waters off South Carolina is only one of a vast fleet China has built and deployed worldwide.
This revelation makes a further mockery of those who downplayed the impact of China's massive intelligence-gathering (and potential EMP weapon-carrying) airship gliding high above the U.S.
The Pentagon now says that the high-altitude airship was part of a major Chinese ongoing aerial surveillance effort of spy balloons, of different shapes and sizes, dubbed ‘Red Zeppelins' by The Wall Street Journal, that has spanned five continents. (RELATED: US Shoots Down Possible Second Spy Balloon)
Sightings over strategic locations, including military bases and disputed territory in India, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Following the discovery and studies of a crashed balloon off Hawaii in 2022, it now appears there were at least four Chinese spy balloon incursions over the U.S. or U.S. territories, such as Guam, dating back to the Trump administration.
All were reportedly brief overflights; one was under Biden. None were detected at the time.
One Chinese spy balloon “drifted past Hawaii and across Florida” as it “circumnavigated the globe” in 2019, according to a U.S. Air Force intelligence account.
The balloons are believed to be constructed in Xinjiang province, with the surveillance program operating mainly out of Hainan Island off China's south coast.
The State Department said that the U.S. government was confident that the unnamed Chinese company that made the balloon had direct ties with the People's Liberation Army (PLA). (RELATED: US General Warns Pacific Enemies We Are Ready for War)
That finding again highlights the close links between many ostensibly civilian-run enterprises in China and the country's military, also known as China's “military-civil fusion.”
Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said the U.S. had now found a way of spotting the approaching balloons and last week's was tracked from the time it approached in the Aleutian Islands in the north Pacific.
U.S. officials have begun to share details with other countries whose military facilities were being targeted.
As The Guardian reported:
“We're not alone in this,” said the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken. “We've already shared information with dozens of countries around the world both from Washington and through our embassies. We're doing so because the United States was not the only target of this broader programme which has violated the sovereignty of countries across five continents.”
Despite the blatant and brazen violation of U.S. sovereignty by China and the potential military threat had the airship been armed, Biden continues to respond meekly.
President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the U.S. was “not looking for conflict” with China despite tensions over the balloon. “We're going to compete fully with China, but … we're not looking for conflict – and that's been the case so far,” he said in an interview with the PBS network.
Asked if the incident had caused major damage to the relationship with Beijing, Biden said: “No.”
Meanwhile, the Biden Pentagon continues to blandly refer to communist China as our number one ‘pacing challenge,' a term so anodyne it reminds people of a pace car at the Indy 500 auto race.
What they should be calling China is our number one enemy, or threat or at least our adversary.
As President Ronald Reagan well understood when he faced down the U.S.S.R. – words matter. And we are neck deep in a looming war, not a sporting event.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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I jsut wonder how much Biden got under the table from his Chinese buddies to ignore it.
Good report Paul, it’s time for the entire world to wake up to the ambitions of the CCP. Those that don’t either wake up to the CCPs ambitions or are supportive of them need to be removed.
Two possibilities exist: The Defense Department did not detect these prior incursions by communist China, or they did and kept the President of the United States in the dark. Neither is acceptable. But at this point, we don’t know which occurred. Keep in mind, the people telling us they didn’t detect these prior incursions until recently are in the Defense Department. They have a vested interest (CYA) in telling us this version. No one at the Pentagon has even ATTEMPTED to explain how the presence of these HUGE spy balloons could have been missed at the time, yet ‘discovered’ years after the event.
They also haven’t explained how after discovering the existence of these spy balloons they did NOTHING to stop them until AFTER the public became aware and demanded action.
Any and all vehicles that approach american airspace should be shot down immediately as a standing order. Any legitimate aircraft would signal and respond to any warnings. If not splash them. If these are the spy balloons and we are worried about and attack we really should used a larger warhead to incinerate and toxic or dirty bomb that may be on board.
During the 1960’s I was knew about US balloon flights for research out of New Mexico. They had many flights over the US and I think there may still be a civilian high altitude balloon launching station in the US. Thus I am not surprised that the Chinese balloons were not identified earlier. The early galactic x-ray studies were done by high altitude balloons. Who would have thought that the balloons were weapons of war by a possible enemy. Amazomg
The Japanese sent hundreds of balloons into the jetstream in WWII carrying bombs and incendiaries to drift to North America and drop their loads on the U.S. and Canada. They didn’t do much damage except for killing a family in Oregon who tried pulling a crashed balloon and bomb out of the forest. So using balloons as weapons of war is nothing new.