Up, Up and Away

China's balloon incursion managed to be simultaneously silly and serious

"Have a Balloon" by macabrephotographer is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

By Kevin J. Rogers

When a Chinese surveillance balloon appeared in American airspace last Thursday, the reaction in some circles was predictable and, in many cases, predictably absurd. Republicans took no time at all in lambasting the Biden Administration for not shooting the balloon down immediately. In MAGA Land, the criticisms became (as they always do) an opportunity for some performative trolling.

For their part, officials at the DOD pointed out they had been ordered to shoot it down, but on their advice the president agreed to hold fire until the balloon was safely over water, where falling debris wouldn’t post a threat to the civilians below. Fighter jets finally downed it off the coast of South Carolina, in shallow water where it should be relatively easy for Navy divers to recover the instruments the balloon had on board.

So, we should know shortly whether the balloon was on a spy mission, or simply an innocent weather balloon which had been blown of course as the Chinese have claimed. (Whether for appearance’s sake or for actual malfeasance, the head of China’s Meteorological Administration, Zhuang Guota, was promptly fired.) It won’t take long for our experts to determine exactly what the balloon was for.