Chinese Spy Balloon: During and After

Angus Crerar (G6)

Current Events

Published Issue 5 2022-2023

“The violation of our sovereignty is unacceptable. We'll act to protect our country and we did.".

Those were the words of Joe Biden, the president of the United States. In a formal speech, he was referring to the takedowns of the Chinese spy balloon and the other “high-altitude objects” spotted in North America these past four weeks. In this article, I will cover how we got here, Why there was a spy balloon, and why are we only seeing large numbers of them now?

The First Balloon: January 28th - February 5th

January 28th: First Spotted in Alaska but would later “drift” to Canada. From Canada, it soon “wandered” to America, and then, our anxiety at the prospect of a Chinese sent balloon spying on us, rose.

Then on February 1st, President Biden first called for the balloon to be taken down, only when it does not pose a hazard to citizens. Later, on February 4th, The balloon was shot down by an F-22 firing missile, Following, the Chinese foreign ministry criticized America for shooting down a “civilian aircraft”. 

"China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and protest against the U.S. using force to attack civilian unmanned airships," said Chinese officials, China’s ministry reminded America that they told them the balloon was “for civilian use and entered the U.S. due to force majeure, which was completely accidental.". Two days later the U.S. navy starts trying to find the remains which would later be sent to the FBI to ship to a laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, for intelligence gathering and analysis. On a side note, America believed the spy balloon to have a self-destruct capability. The U.S. does not understand why this was used but some speculate it was for the safety of civilians.

On February 8th, The Pentagon’s Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder made public that similar scenarios have occurred over other “sensitive sites” in recent years, but did not give any location or time of these episodes.

Fiery speeches from like-minded people as State Department spokesperson Ned Price claimed that even though the balloon was ‘blown off course, it was still an infringement of U.S. supremacy;

"I'm not going to opine on what the [Chinese government] may or may not have intended, but in key ways, it doesn't matter. It's completely immaterial," Price said. "It's immaterial because this was a high-altitude surveillance balloon that did violate our airspace. It did violate international law. 

Spy balloons have been in use for ages, with the earliest use recorded during the French Revolutionary Wars, but it was really in World War 1 when military ballooning development peaked. They were used to spot “enemy movements, direct artillery fire, and provide early warning of enemy attacks. They were also used for transporting goods, messages, and people across the battlefield.” (Wikipedia). However, after the First World War spy balloons became less beneficial with innovations and modern technology. Now, spy balloons usually only have radars and cameras. Spy balloons seem odd to utilize when we have so many more advanced machines we could use, so, why use them? 

1. Cost. Launching satellites costs millions of dollars whereas launching a balloon is cheap.

2. Relating to cost, satellites need to be equipped with high-end technology and intelligent expertise to keep them running in space while balloons can run on solar energy and only really need cameras and radar

3. Coverage: Balloons can fly lower than satellites, providing higher-resolution images and better coverage of specific areas. (Quora®)

Claiming the balloon was a “civilian aircraft” (something like a weather balloon), China attempted to circumvent the clear consequences of the airspace violation

The Second, Third, and Fourth “Balloons”: February 9th - February 16th

February 9th another object is seen flying over Alaska and two F-35 fighter jets were sent up to identify it. The thing was described as "cylindrical and silver-ish grey". On February 10th, 1:45 ET, the object was shot down.

On February 10th a third object was spotted and monitored by two U.S. F-22 aircraft over Alaska and later Canada joined when it crossed into Canadian airspace. A day later “Following a call from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to President Biden, Biden authorized that U.S. aircraft take down the new high-altitude object and a U.S. F-22 shot it down with a sidewinder missile, Pentagon spokesperson Ryder said.”

On the afternoon of February 12th another high-altitude object was shot down over Lake Huron. The object was octagonal in structure, unmanned and travelling at about 20,000 feet, a senior administration official said. This has been the fourth object shot down so far.

February 16th 

President Joe Biden spoke out in a formal speech. He gave evidence on why he ordered them down saying ​​"due to hazards to civilian commercial air traffic" and because officials couldn't rule out the surveillance risk of sensitive sites.

“I have directed my team to come back to me with sharper rules and how we will deal with these unidentified objects moving forward, distinguishing between those that are likely to pose safety and security risks that necessitate action and those that do not”

We sent "a clear message: The violation of our sovereignty is unacceptable. We'll act to protect our country and we did.".

“But make no mistake, if any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people, I will take it down”

Thank you for reading this. Good night, boa noite, 晚安, buenas noches, bonne nuit, gute Nacht, buonanotte, おやすみなさい.