Note that the spy balloon transited Alaska, flying just north of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, possibly over Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, then proceeded to fly over the missile silo complexes in the Dakotas and over several military bases in the central and southern United States before being shot down off the South Carolina coast. While a balloon is at the mercy of the winds, prevailing winds very conveniently will take such a balloon on this route if it is launched in the right place.

The inclusion of American technology not only demonstrates a considerable degree of planning and forethought, but it also shows that China is easily capable of obtaining superior American technology — and using it against us. This was a serious intelligence-gathering exercise by a country that is growing increasingly bellicose towards the United States — and our allies. //

Hank Reardon
7 hours ago
Quoting Professor Victor Davis Hanson from a recent opinion piece published in The Epoch TImes:

“(China’s) entire 20th-century ascendance was based on stealing U.S. technology, dumping its products on the U.S. market below the cost of production to capture market share, and forcing American corporations to relocate, offshore, and outsource—leaving our industrial hinterland a “rust belt.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/are-trumps-tariffs-really-tariffs-5808723. //

bk
7 hours ago
By coincidence, I just read the old Buzz Patterson book Dereliction of Duty about what a disaster Clinton was for our country re China. This episode with the balloon seems reminiscent of how Clinton allowed his bog donors at Loral and Hughes to provide all sorts of satellite and nuclear technology to China. No doubt Clinton - oops I mean the charitable Clinton Global Foundation - made some big bundles of cash.

Hank Reardon bk
7 hours ago
If you want another reason to despise Slick and his abuse of our technology, read Never Mind We’ll Do It Ourselves. The book that details how Slick demanded a new method for finding UBL for his handoff to Al Gore in advance of election day, 2020. And once the nascent Predator program did just that, by September, 2020, Slick refused to take the shot.