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Written by Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst
It’s now almost certain that most people have forgotten about the mainstream propaganda machine’s rather bizarre coverage of the so-called “Chinese balloon controversy”. At the time, the mandatory “evil Russia” narrative was briefly replaced by an anti-Chinese one as the American press focused on 24/7 coverage of an adrift weather balloon. In my early February piece on the topic, I argued that the very idea that a 21st-century global superpower with hundreds of satellites in space needs 19th-century reconnaissance technologies is beyond ludicrous, to say nothing of its intelligence services and other means of collecting information.
However, the mainstream propaganda machine kept openly lying to the American public about the supposed “spying controversy” in order to fan up Sinophobia and justify its confrontational rhetoric and belligerence against China. Virtually nobody in the mainstream press argued against this, ignoring the fact that weather balloons are simply too obvious and, thus, too (geo)politically sensitive to be used for spying purposes, not to mention they’re not exactly the most steerable aircraft and are also quite slow, meaning they take quite long to reach the “desired location”, supposedly the “Minuteman 3” ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) silos.
The weather balloon, first spotted on January 28, was subsequently shot down by USAF on February 4. The debris was eventually recovered off the coast of North Carolina. At the time, the Pentagon claimed that it recovered the balloon’s “sensitive electronics”, while Japan also complained that it was being “spied” on by the obviously menacing aircraft. And yet, the United States is now saying something completely different. Namely, it turns out that the “evil Chinese spy balloon” was exactly what Beijing kept claiming it was – an actual weather balloon. The Pentagon is now saying it found no evidence whatsoever that it was collecting anything but weather data.
“We believe that it did not collect while it was transiting the United States or flying over the United States, and certainly the efforts that we made contributed, I’m sure,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said on June 29.
He stated this after journalists asked about a Wall Street Journal report which alleged that US-made components were found in the balloon’s data collection undercarriage. State Department officials, citing “preliminary findings from the debris examination”, initially claimed that US-manufactured equipment was used to allegedly “collect photos, videos and other data”. Their assertions were that China essentially used these US-made eavesdropping components and that they’ve been “positively identified” as such. The mainstream propaganda machine even cited “several defense and intelligence agencies”, including the FBI, that have supposedly “analyzed” the debris.
“Several defense and intelligence agencies, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have analyzed the debris retrieved after the US military detected and shot down the balloon nearly five months ago in an event that added fresh, unexpected volatility to the already fraught US-China relationship. That analysis found the balloon was crammed with commercially available US gear, some of it for sale online, and interspersed with more specialized Chinese sensors and other equipment to collect photos, video and other information to transmit to China, the officials said. Those findings, they said, support a conclusion that the craft was intended for spying, not weather monitoring as Beijing has said,” the WSJ report claims.
In other words, the mainstream propaganda machine is claiming that, instead of using actual, military-grade domestic ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) equipment, China allegedly “needs to” use easily available off-the-shelf US-made components, which millions of regular people make common use of, to spy on another superpower. And yet, even this was denied by the Pentagon.
Question: “General Ryder, can you respond to reports that suggest that, onboard the Chinese spy balloon, were found off the shelf American equipment? Were there — was there any sensitive American equipment onboard? How do you think that American equipment was obtained? Did — were there any laws broken? And what was it capable of doing? What can you tell us?”
GEN. RYDER: “Sure. Thanks, Jennifer. So — so look, I don’t have any specifics to provide as it pertains to the PRC high altitude balloon and any potential US components. That said, I will say that, you know, we are aware, in previous cases, for example, things like drones and — and other capabilities, what have you, where off-the-shelf, commercial US components have been used in capabilities. So that, in and of itself, is not surprising.”
At the time of the “balloon scare”, the USAF shot down at least three other similar “spying balloons” in the next several days, including over Canada’s Arctic Circle regions. Although the troubled Biden administration admitted that the three balloons might have been “totally benign”, the US kept fanning up tensions with China over the nonexistent “incident”. In mid-February, President Joe Biden himself acknowledged that “the balloons [were] tied to private companies, recreational or research institutions, studying weather or conducting other scientific research”. And indeed, The Guardian later reported that one of the “intimidating spy aircraft” was in fact a $12 hobbyist’s balloon.
Considering that US national security was in “so much jeopardy”, USAF sent its grossly overhyped F-22A fighter jets to shoot down the “spy aircraft”. The jet that costs $334 million apiece and around $85,000 per flight hour fired a nearly half a million dollar missile to down a weather balloon, to say nothing of the dozens of support aircraft the F-22A requires to conduct such missions.
china was spying on the chem trails.
only brainwashed good boys believe their lies
the big problem with americans is that they are addicted to being lied to. this whole “event in the moment” was carried out the same way mass hysteria was unleashed during wwii with balloons from japan; only it did not generate the same mass paranoia this time. major embarrassment for uncle joe who blatantly lied about busloads of spy equipment being used.
pentagon quietly admits in deep silence, that china boasts and brags like a thunderstorm.