China Balloons – A Layered Scam

By Robert B. Charles for RealClearWire

A Chinese surveillance balloon has been floating over the United States for a week. No action is taken until the outcry makes it necessary to take it down. A second over South America, a third over Hawaii. President Biden said this happened under President Trump. After former Trump administration officials said that didn’t happen, Biden responded that they were “discovered” after Trump left. What explains all this?

For starters, China just tested Joe Biden and he failed. China placed a spy balloon over Hawaii, and the president — we’re now learning — did nothing about a device that leisurely crossed the U.S. about a dozen miles in the air and presumably sent images to the Chinese military in real-time. US airspace goes up 62 miles.

why was it no Shot dead? We are only told that the “terrain” could hurt someone, or that it was harmless, and therefore no action was required. These were weak, if not false, excuses for inaction. Debris will be minimal and can be engineered into vacant lots. Satellites can see things, but a spy balloon sees 100 times closer.

As for “no need”, well, only if you want more spy balloons next month and see no danger in precedent, which is to say, the possibility of one day facing a potential chem, bio, radioactive or EMP threat. Otherwise, you’ll quickly shoot it down like a Chinese fighter or bomber.

We didn’t. Why not? Apparently the explanation is that the Biden team is timid, afraid to upset China, and believes that this provocation will be seen as a mere “escalating” violation, which they can slip by unnoticed.

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Except Americans saw it with their own eyes, so we were treated to predictably biased and self-serving crisis management: Biden’s team quickly said they “discovered” it, were “monitoring” it, would decide what to do next. Meanwhile, the foreign secretary immediately waffled about postponing his planned visit to China.

Biden’s team wrung their hands, said little, did little, and hoped it would just go away. The outcry was significant, so they finally decided to shoot the offending balloon over the ocean, and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken bravely delayed his trip.

The courage quotient in this White House, Biden’s Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security and State Department is stunning — for its absence. Have we not thought of any possibilities here? Can we imagine that we only consider airplanes or missiles as threats?

So, the Biden team finally shot down the Chinese spy balloon over the ocean, while China whined, lied, and carried on. But this is where the “scandal within the scandal” begins. Under the gun to explain themselves, Biden and his team belatedly said that “three Chinese balloons” were in the US under Trump. Almost every highly cleared Trump intelligence and national security appointee (more than a dozen) categorically denies this.

This leads to subsequent hard-faith deviations. Biden’s team says the Chinese balloons that Trump did not release were discovered after he left office. What?

Yes, they say it happened then but was only “discovered” after Trump left, which is probably why no one heard about it. This credit is hard. Are we to believe that NORAD’s 24/7 operations center was asleep – that China dared Trump to cross, and we only saw the spy balloons after reviewing the tape?

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All of this sounds increasingly absurd, watering down hard facts, reprehensible, overwhelming, and requiring – in an accountable republic – high-level resignations. There are big, real questions here.

First, if a spy balloon from China really floated over the US during the Trump era and not a single recruiter was informed, do we have a “spy deep state” – one that is either pro-China or that is so afraid of Trump’s actions that they are holding it back? ? exactly WHO I knew what, when,And said nothing?

Second, if the balloons were over the US under Trump and NORAD or the intelligence community couldn’t see them in real time, why not? This is a major intelligence failure. How did that happen? Third, by all means – and no matter how bad the scandal – the Chinese spy balloons in US skies should have been brought down immediately. Shall we wait for a warrior and say that the ruins concern us?

China has learned a key lesson, and it cannot be unlearned. Biden will hesitate, deflect, do almost anything to avoid confrontation with China, even allowing access to US airspace. None of this will make Taiwan, or Japan, Australia, the Philippines – or any US ally – feel good.

Communist China’s deliberate incursion into US airspace is not a non-event, not immaterial, something to pretend didn’t happen. And it should have immediately triggered a shootdown.

Who is to blame for this fragility? What will China do next? It was a small blemish, not a passing oversight or a victory — nor was the disastrous US exit from Afghanistan. This is another layered scam.

Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.

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