That Chinese Balloon -- Why? February 4, 2023

In reply to a reader:

In all seriousness there were at least three reasons.

1. Geo-political. The US, of course, knew immediately, called the Chinese and discussed options.

2. They can only shoot it down if over one's territory -- and it probably crossed from Canada. There is probably some double-talk by the military about the risk of shooting it down over Montana. See below.

3. Geo-political: something new -- China was clearly the "belligerent" here and the administration was probably trying to figure out how to use this to their diplomatic advantage, knowing that it posed no danger to the United States.

4. Military-intelligence. I'm sure intelligence community wanted to get all the information they could from the balloon. It was either transmitting en-route and the NSA would intercept every communication; if not transmitting en-route, then how does one capture the electronics intact -- shooting it down over water suggests it was transmitting en-route and the balloon had outlived its usefulness (for the US intelligence community).

5. The military probably found themselves between the Biden political team who knew it had to be shot down once the press found out about it, and the Biden intelligence community who didn't want it shot down, as noted above.

6. So, that crap about not shooting it down over Montana -- though with some validity -- bought "everyone" time while sorting this out.

7. I think it's fascinating. What in the world were the Chinese thinking? Was this balloon only supposed to go over Taiwan (for several reasons) and then it got away from them, literally and figuratively? This seems so incredibly bizarre.