As President Joe Biden's White House botched the response to the Chinese spy balloon incident and later attempted to play it down, national security experts are raising flags and sounding extremely scary alarms.
According to the Daily Wire, a number of national security experts believe the communist spy balloon attack was much more meaningful for China -- and other American adversaries -- than meets the eye.
The balloon, which the White House knew had been floating above United States land days before Americans found out, carried a massive payload likely chock-full of sophisticated surveillance equipment. Experts like Bryan Clark, the director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, have other theories as to why the Chinese utilized the balloon.
And it would explain why the balloon just happened to traverse over or near several critical U.S. military structures.
"That could improve China’s ability to target U.S. missile silos and better understand the construction and layout of U.S. bomber bases in places like Montana and North Dakota where the balloon is flying," he said.
Clark added: "It could have obtained signals intelligence by listening in on U.S. military radio and radar signals. Because satellite flyovers are known and predictable, U.S. forces avoid transmitting sensitive signals during those windows, but the balloon can fly an unpredictable route and show up unexpectedly."
🚨#BREAKING: Map shows the travel path of the Chinese surveillance balloon over multiple missile silo
After 7 days of traveling at 60,000 feet, here is a detailed map showing the flight path of the surveillance balloon, notably over multiple missile silos. pic.twitter.com/gWN9n97c4V
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) February 7, 2023
He went on to note another frightening possibility, that the CCP balloon was "a test of U.S. air surveillance and response to less obvious threats."
"Russian bombers and surveillance aircraft regularly test U.S. responses in the high north, but unarmed uncrewed aircraft like this balloon present a situation U.S. air forces may not have a well-practiced response for," Clark continued.
Imagine if the Chinese balloon would have dropped EMP bombs or biological contaminants, or who knows what else? What a joke it would have been if America had been attacked in that form while the Biden administration let the spy equipment traverse some 4,000 miles across the U.S.
"Make no mistake about it, this violation of U.S. sovereignty on the eve of Secretary Blinken’s scheduled trip to China was not only about surveillance, it was also about testing whether or not the Biden administration would respond strongly and risk the diplomatic engagement," said Victoria Coates, a senior research fellow for the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.
Coates added: "Unfortunately, until the story blew up in the news they clearly prioritized keeping the trip over defending the national security of the United States, and even though it’s been delayed, Secretary Blinken said in his statement he expects it to be rescheduled and expressed his commitment to diplomacy."
That was a reference to the White House's reported decision to keep quiet about the balloon so as to not create any conflict with Secretary of State Blinken's trip there this week. The trip was ultimately canceled anyway.
Let's hope and pray that the next time that the Chinese or any other adversary tests us like that, we make the right calls a whole lot sooner.
