comment: >
  
  An accident that’s been ongoing for weeks? 
  China, come on. You sound like those cheaters who get busted with their pants down. At least try to come up with an interesting lie
context: Force majeure: An event or effect that cannot be reasonably anticipated or controlled, e.g. ACT OF GOD >
  
  The Pentagon says the balloon, which was carrying sensors and surveillance equipment, was maneuverable and showed it could change course. It loitered over sensitive areas of Montana where nuclear warheads are siloed, leading the military to take actions to prevent it from collecting intelligence. >
  
  The issue is those silos have been known and can be seen via Google maps. This is just really bizarre >
  
  Probably scanning all the local radio transmissions along with seeing what's unsecured. >
  
  I believe their goal is to disrupt our communications in event of war. >
  
  Which is why we should be mindful of where our communications equipment is manufactured. >
  
  Absolutely. They have shown they can not be trusted. >
  
  Anyone can be trusted, until they can’t. It’s best to operate with the future in mind. Don’t trust what you don’t control. 
  Google in the past had an unofficial policy of “don’t be evil”, and while currently they have been shady, they have never been super data-sharing shady, but let’s say Chat GPT destroys them and a Chinese buyer comes along and snatches Alphabet up, suddenly all of Gmail is an espionage dream for an unscrupulous government. >
  
  So they'd have no problem with us bringing down their "errant" balloon? >
  
  it is down >
  
  “Just another unnecessary act by US warmongers.”
  -China, probably. >
  
  So I guess the other one over Latin America is another “mu-bad”?!! 🤨 >
  
  Actually there's 4 Chinese balloons still floating around:
  
  Sources also told CTV News U.S. intelligence knows of a total of at least four of these balloons from China sent to other countries, beyond the one currently over the U.S. That includes the one the Pentagon confirmed late Friday night floating over Latin America.
  This incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between China and the West. In a statement, the Chinese foreign ministry said the balloon did come from China and apologized for its entry into U.S. airspace, but insisted the balloon was used for civilian research purposes rather than espionage. >
  
  That's funny, because the Chinese government uses civilian research to conduct espionage >
  
  At a scale few comprehend and with an audacity fewer believe. >
  
  Are we supposed to believe that China didn't have any way of tracking their balloon? And if they did, and it was just an innocent weather balloon that got blown off course, what was stopping them from calling up the US and letting them know that shit happened, let's all be chill about it?
  I mean, we all know China is bullshitting, but they could at least come up with something more convincing... >
  
  Initially, I’d call bullshit on US military except China’s foreign ministry offered no explanation of where it came from or what research it was supposed to be doing. Further, it seems like any party that loses balloons the size of several buses would take care to know where it went and make the appropriate phone calls, which China did not. It’s all very curious. >
  
  There are also multiple balloons apparently. Another was found over recently I believe >
  
  I might believe the balloon somehow got blown way off course-
  If there wasn’t another one over South America. 
  Two just seems a little too much of a coincidence. 
  I guess it might be possible both balloons got caught up in the same winds or jet stream, but… eh. >
  
  Once is chance, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern. 
  I’m just waiting to read about the third one floating around so I can then jump to the ‘oh it’s totally intentional’ conclusion. >
  
  fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, uhhh cant get fooled again >
  
  *throws shoe* >
  
  *dodges*
  *throws other shoe*
  *dodges again* >
  
  George Bush don’t care about Shoe people >
  
  Hilariously, neither does Ye anymore. >
  
  Great follow up. >
  
  Adidas dropped him, didn't they? >
  
  From where? On his head? >
  
  Force Majeure in their vocabulary is " caught in the act". >
  
  Find a third balloon, and it is a majeure à trois >
  
  Maybe then we'll figure out who the Chinese are in bed with. >
  
  China doesn’t do soft power well. They have a limited number of allies.
  Russia and China are friendly but only if China doesn’t mess with India. Russia will always side with India because Russia and India both experienced “Sino wars” in the 1960’s. >
  
  India is one of Russia’s largest trading partners. It might be the largest now. >
  
  Sure - it “accidentally” flew through Canada and halfway across the US without them notifying anyone >
  
  I've seen a flight path posted which supposedly originates from NORAD and they have the balloon as coming from the Chinese mainland. That thing crossed over both South-Korean and Japanese airspace before going up the Pacific Northwest outwards of Kamchatka towards Alaska. So they must have been tracking it since it was launched, or are they just extrapolating from wind directions etc? >
  
  The US definitely tracked the balloon since launch. The US early warning agencies are very, very interested in all artificial flying things coming out of Russia/Asia. >
  
  But then let it fly through Alaska and CONUS and only shot it down over the Atlantic when it was done doing everything it wanted to? 
  I’m not saying you’re wrong but it honesty doesn’t make sense. >
  
  If it is harmless why show your emergency response? >
  
  
  "China has always strictly abided by international law and respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries," the ministry said
  
  Riiight, riight, right. >
  
  Every other country that borders the South China Sea would beg to differ. Every single one. >
  
  China has fought a war with every single one of their neighbors, even the ones that aren’t land bordering them lol >
  
  I do indeed remember when big bully China fought a war against sweet innocent Japan in the 1930s and 40s >
  
  Japan was trying to de-Nazify China ofc >
  
  Now it seems the accident is changing course intentionally and there is a second accident floating over Latin America. >
  
  Would not be surprised it if lingers over Brazil for a long time.
  Two democratic countries that have extremely splintered political parties and very narrow elections where candidates refused to concede a loss. Just throw a scary sounding spy balloon and rile up the portion that scares easily so they vote for more authoritarian politicians. Another way to create division and sow weakness in countries. >
  
  when it comes to Chinese surveillance, I’m generally more concerned with the millions of people sharing their faces and voices w TikTok everyday than I am with the balloon >
  
  china: we dont have to use airballoons to spy on you. we simply bribe some of your underpaid workers. >
  
  That costs money though. Just handing out TikTok to everyone is way easier. >
  
  Insane how little tiktok is being brought up right now. 1/8th of all living humans across the entire planet are using tiktok every month, voluntarily sharing private and confidential info >
  
  Insane how little US spyware apps like Facebook, Twitter, Insta, Snapchat get brought up >
  
  Well the two are very different so why would those be brought up? >
  
  Difference in that American spyware = good? Chinese spyware = bad? >
  
  The level of spyware in TikTok > level of spyware in Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter combined >
  
  If you actually believe that, then there's really no changing your mind lmao >
  
  Lol ahh yes because all the other apps share data through a third party and I can’t tell where my data goes from Facebook 🙄 putting it out there I don’t use Facebook Twitter or insta for the reason I don’t want my data fucked with, doesn’t change the fact that TikTok is leagues worse than any of them tho >
  
  
  through a third party
  
  Is the US government a third party though?
  Surely if you're concerned about Tiktok spying then you would like to see something done about all apps spying >
  
  Force majeure usually comes with notifying the country first, so nah. >
  
  Weather / wind current patterns suggest that China is lying, especially now that there is another spotted in Latin America. >
  
  China and lying about foreign policy. Name a more iconic duo. >
  
  Yeah, but [insert whataboutism here]? >
  
  They are working their way down. They're busy doing that to the top comments, atm. >
  
  Yep.  I just caught a "The US can't have the moral high ground on this because [the US did bad shit in the past]"
  On a comment that had nothing to do with the US, and was just pointing out how much china bald-face lies. >
  
  I’d be embarrassed if I were them. We have people just taking pics of their spy tech with their cell phones as we all watch it pass by. >
  
  This was the funniest bit. Literally every news agency and twitter post has close up images of ‘secret spy balloon’. >
  
  I would think the US would want to get hands on that to see the payload.  Maybe that would explain why a balloon vs satellite or spy plane. Maybe it's carrying some instrumentation that won't work from too high altitude. >
  
  
  Maybe it's carrying some instrumentation that won't work from too high altitude.
  
  It's 66,000ft. The US U2 spy plane ceiling is 70,000ft. The Chinese J11 has a ceiling of 62,000ft. Most commercial aircraft are 42,000ft. Obviously satellites are a lot higher. >
  
  Further, there are satellites in ‘space’ that can see whether your toes are hanging over the edge of a curb while you’re waiting for the bus… >
  
  Yeah but the ballon can loiter around an area for longer. Also given where it actually was, I’m kind of wondering if it had specialized equipment designed to check on the readiness status of the minuteman instillations in Montana that a satellite isn’t able to do. Either that or they’re after the Krusty Krab Secret Formula. >
  
  Geostationary satellites survey the same spot on earth indefinitely because they are rotating with the earth at the same speed.
  Examples: 
  NOAA GOES EAST
  NOAA GOES WEST >
  
  cool but those have shit resolution cause of their range. spy sats are generally not in geostationary orbit. the reason those sats can be that far out is they are looking at things the size of clouds. most earth observation sats are in LEO. >
  
  We are sorry we got caught. >
  
  This things was not necessarily taking pictures that a satellite could’ve captured. Probably acting more like a “stingray device” or capturing data and communications around specific sensitive areas. And/or even testing capabilities to hack certain pieces of equipment. >
  
  God himself could come down and confirm this as an "Act of Me" and I still wouldn't trust China. Totalitarian regimes do batshit insane things all the time, depending on which side of the bed Dear Leader woke up on. "Spy balloon" is well within the batshit insane realm. >
  
  
  Sorry
  
  A word we will NEVER hear from the chinese government.
  
  China's foreign ministry said on Saturday that flight of a Chinese "airship" over the United States was a force majeure accident, accusing U.S. politicians and media of taking advantage of the situation to discredit China.
  
  Figures. A "higher power" launched (of all clays!) a chinese spy balloon and then moved it across the US. >
  
  No apology, but we did get a lecture on how we should be reasonable about spying and keep a cool head about having our airspace violated. The gaslighting is real. >
  
  Russia doesn’t lie to deceive you. They lie to insult you. >
  
  Chinese version of "Sphere" of influence xD >
  
  We accidentally shot it down, no worries >
  
  “We are very sorry that we got caught” >
  
  The U.S. should just send a big balloon with Winnie the Pooh on the side into Chinese airspace just to troll them. >
  
  They just shot it down over South Carolina. My mother in law said it was really loud >
  
  The US has been tracking that thing since at least it crossed through Alaska.  The US didn’t shoot it down earlier, because it was more valuable to gather counter-intel, while it’s working. >
  
  And we accidently blew it up with an f22, mb dawg >
  
  Maybe the real Chinese spy balloons are the friends we made along the way 🙏🏾 >
  
  "China has always strictly abided by international law and respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries," the ministry said in a statement.
  Hong Kong would like a word.  Tibet would like a world.  Taiwan (later this year most likely) would like a word.  The Uyghur people would like a word. >
  
  Cmon do we really need to have the conversation if this was intentional or not? Are we really going to entertain that idea? Yall cannot be that stupid to think this was an accident. >
  
  You're too emotional if you can't entertain an idea even if you think it's highly unlikely >
  
  Nope, just not a fool when someone spits in my face I don't hand them a napkin and say bless you. >
  
  It's probably a distraction. >
  
  In a place where anything can be replicated they chose to go with “obvious balloon” over making a Budweiser blimp and floating that thing over the entire US to cheers like it’s the second coming of the messiah. 
  I’m picturing the penguins. “Smile and wave boys, smile and wave” >
  
  If that’s true why didn’t they just inform the US beforehand about the ballon gotten out of control?
  Yeah, because it didn’t. >
  
  "China has always followed international law" OMG lol >
  
  
  "China has always strictly abided by international law and respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries," the (Chinese foreign ministry) said in a statement.
  
  Okie-dokie. >
  
  Yeah right, like I believe that story. I'm gonna do a live on tik tok about it right now..... >
  
  Its weird how people are falling for this fearmongering hook line and sinker. 
  China if they wanted to surveillance US, they could have done it via satellite which has been mentioned by Pentagon as well. Hell, we both do it to each other already all the time. Also, if China needed anything else, they can do so via data harvesting through data brokers. Also, if this was actually serious, Military would have shot it down no question asked no reports nothing, we would hear nothing of it. Media is pumping this up (because hey clicks and views) and we are all buying the fearmonger. >
  
  In defense of fear-mongering... China has been, in the past two decades, the only real credible threat against Western hegemony. The dire straits Russia is in currently should indicate that, despite their nuclear arsenal, they basically relied on energy exports and were pretty much geopolitically relegated to the position of weak 3rd power (in the same vein as India) at best or Chinese satellite state at worst.
  Making a big deal about the balloons is absolutely Western propaganda. But they're doing that for a reason. It's signalling to China that they can drum up support and fear-monger and do what it takes to vilify if need be.
  China still is a legitimate threat to Western hegemony. It seems like we might get the last laugh on the economic front, and they've never been able to compete in conventional military, but they are still comparable in a lot of areas of computing, cybersecurity, and potentially using space (yes, outer-space. don't roll your eyes) as a domain. 
  100% agree that if it was serious we wouldn't know about it, but I disagree with outright dismissal of being wary. I don't know if I completely believe everything I read about the human rights violations, Uighur genocide, or alleged immoral biochemical experimentation, but even a small portion of it is true, it's not something I can feel comfortable with.
  The other issue is that a lot of policy makers for the US, GB, and to a lesser extent EU were educated by the same hard-line neoliberal academics who believe in the Thucydides Trap. So even if I don't believe the hype, it is concerning that policy makers, budget allocators, and button pressers might be. >
  
  your argument would have more merit if westerners werent already fearful and distrustful of china lol. just look at the polls pre balloon >
  
  to that, i'd say my argument maintains the same merit it had before the balloons. the strength of the argument hasn't changed and wont until something fundamentally shifts the dynamic between the two countries. they're fearful and distrustful of china because they should be. not saying that Western countries are blameless, but most of us on reddit live in them. I'd imagine, if I could get reliable polls on Chinese views of the United States over the past 20 years, they've been equally distrustful. >
  
  nah i disagree. your argument is that the media is drumming up fear of these balloons as a signal to china that america can do what it takes to vilify china. like you and i know, china vilifies themselves lol for free. i think its silly to believe that this is a coordinated propaganda campaign rather than just china either doing something nefarious or fucking up like they often do >
  
  the media is drumming up fear. china is doing something nefarious. whether or not it constitutes a fuck-up, is not something i can be sure of. i'm sure all countries have dirt at the ready to drop on their adversaries if need be. which news agency broke the balloon story first? >
  
  big diff between the media drumming up fear and "western propaganda" lol. and again, america does not need to have any "dirt" to drop on china, china drops dirt on themselves >
  
  i guess that's the difference of opinion here. i don't buy into the Chinese "whoops!" argument. there is more context to this that we don't know about. what Western media has been saying is that the DoD had been tracking a surveillance balloon. The Secretary of State cancelled a planned visit to China. A second balloon was revealed over Latin America. There's a lot going on between the lines, but what has been reported by either side is purposeful. >
  
  They are testing the airstreams so that they can put harmful dust/ gas particles in the air. >
  
  You mean they're gonna send the manufacturing jobs back here? >
  
  99 red balloons go by >
  
  
  "China has always strictly abided by international law and respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries," the ministry said in a statement.
  
  Taiwan will be happy to hear of this new position. >
  
  idk why America and China must be so adversarial.
  Besides being 2 different styles of gov, Bejing needs US as much as US needs those cheap goods coming in.
  Who knows how much tech China gets from the USA? If any foreign entity wants to do business in China, they have to be in some sort of partnership with a Chinese company (e.g. Car manufacturers). 
  Someone correct me if I’m wrong. >
  
  Because China’s colonisation period has yet to begin. >
  
  Never trust what China says. Whatever they say, it’s most likely the opposite. Maybe once in a while what they say is true but they’re just way too untrustworthy. Trusting anything they say is like trusting your cheating ex that this time they’re different. >
  
  So it’s not a weather balloon 
  It wasn’t NOT intentional 
  And they aren’t sorry about it.
  Thanks, mate. I think I understand Chinese now. >
  
  it would be a real shame for it to have an ACCIDENT over some of the more remote parts of America, and we get a sweet look at that 5000 mega pixel surveillance gear they've been bragging about.  
  Bet the only reason it's still up is the CIA or what ever alphabet soup agency is trying to figure out the best opportunity and or cover story >
  
  We just saw it over pineville, nc. Several jets flying around the area as well. It was headed southwest. >
  
  A friend of mine has posted a few snaps of a “balloon” being shot down over myrtle beach… >
  
  I thought it was a croque monsieur incident. >
  
  This is some Independence Day shit. >
  
  If it were an accident or loss of control, why not get on the phone and explain so and ask for the balloon back?
  That's what I do when my football goes into the neighbour's garden. >
  
  Normally they go unnoticed… >
  
  Hhooo American baloons sooo big, chinese baloons soo small. Show them. Its sooo small :-( 
  Whos remembers that episode of South Park LOL >
  
  A farce manure? Yeah, sounds about right. >
  
  Foreign spy balloons are no big deal but if you, a U.S. citizen, try to fly a pocket drone over an empty field in Yellowstone National Park, the Feds will be on it stat. >
  
  It's almost like situations involving international diplomacy have to be handled more carefully than other situations. What a crazy idea >
  
  Maybe we haven’t damaged it because we hacked it and are watching what it attempts to analyze. We see you, too. >
  
  Over the state where nuclear war heads are stored?  A bit sus... >
  
  Aka - lets test and see if we can target carriers with  hypersonic missiles via balloon……..
  Launch a few and see if the US can track…
  In tit of Tat diplomatic games watch for the US to ratchet it up a few.  
  Carrier port of call in Taiwan time… >
  
  I mean, if we can't track a thing that size moving that slowly and emitting that much signal... Well, it's silly to start this sentence that way. We can and have. >
  
  My bet is that once it's over the ocean the US shoots it down >
  
  Yeah accident, right over MOTSU and Fort Bragg... If you don't know what MOTSU is google it. Biggest weapons depot port the military has. >
  
  Ah yes, two things their satellites never see! >
  
  Sure their sats see it, but I find it rather strange that their accidental course flew over both the army's biggest base and their biggest weapons depot. I live directly next to MOTSU, fighter jets were scarmbled all over the place which is not usual. Obviously the military was on high alert. >
  
  Military has been on high alert before it even hit us airspace. >
  
  Our international airport is shutdown because of the balloon as well so fighter jets can guard motsu. >
  
  their cloud camo machine malfunctioned... wonk wonk....
  the real accident was, it got noticed...lol >
  
  Why are the Chinese speaking french all of a sudden? >
  
  Trying to sound civilized. >
  
  Balloon shmaloon. What I care about is why did they cancel the Blinken 182 china tour? >
  
  All the small things just keep adding up. >
  
  Obviously China has sent this on purpose. 
  Obviously China does not need to send a fucking giant balloon that’s visible with the naked eye to conduct its spying.
  So why would they do this?
  I’m leaning in the direction that it’s an intentional poke in the eye to the US >
  
  I’m willing to bet they wanted more of a reaction from american civilians than military. I’ve read nothing short of conspiracies with the balloon having EMPs, WMDs, diseases, the whole nine. More now than ever am I seeing people behave schizophrenic over something so insignificant >
  
  This is not a weather balloon as the Chinese claim, but rather a trial balloon to see how the US reacts. It has been reported that such a balloon could in fact carry a nuclear weapon or biological weapon. The US needs tell the Chinese and no uncertain terms that the presence of these balloons over the US is totally unacceptable. >
  
  My F150 can carry a nuke.  A country with ICBMs since the 70s would rely on balloons?  Literally stuck in 1950s red scare mentality.