I believe it was a Spy System and anything it tracked, photographed, or recorded was immediately transmitted up to orbiting Chinese Spy Satellites. With today's technology, they can track and record so many signals. I feel that since it was in our Airspace, it was an "invasive action."
Look, we all know that each of the major players have Geo synecious satellites in orbit over each other's countries and we all get a free pass on this since they are beyond the Kármán line.
The Kármán line is a boundary 62 miles (100 kilometers) above mean sea level that borders Earth's atmosphere and the beginning of space. But that Balloon was not that high.
How many of our balloons do you thing the Chinese would allow over their airspace?
I sure hope we had picked it up before it ever entered our Airspace and we should have shot it done then…
Remember these words, "Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it."
In Between November 1944 and April 1945, the Imperial Japanese Army launched about 9,300 balloons from sites on Honshu, of which about 300 were found or observed in the U.S. and Canada, with some in Mexico. The balloons traveled on high-altitude and high-speed currents over the Pacific Ocean, and carried an incendiary balloon weapon (a fire bomb…) The bombs were ineffective as fire starters due to damp conditions, causing only minor damage and six deaths (from a civilian incident in Oregon in May 1945). Fu-Go was the first weapon to have intercontinental range, with its flights being the longest-ranged attacks in the history of warfare at the time.
Look Familiar?
View attachment 160297
Now, the Chinese Balloons were more sophisticated and they had altitude and directional control with small motors to propel them.
Who knows just how extensive their "weather research" (spying) was, but one thing they did learn was just how indecisive the US can be.
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