CHINA IS UNHAPPY.  WILL THIS RUIN YOUR DAY?  From Fox:

China has accused the United States of lying to the world after the House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution condemning Beijing's statements about a surveillance spy balloon hovering across North America.

"China is strongly dissatisfied with this and firmly opposes it," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a daily briefing Friday, accusing the U.S. lawmakers of "hyping up" the balloon for "purely political manipulation."

The stern statement came the day after Republicans and Democrats united in a 419-0 vote to condemn Beijing for a "brazen violation" of U.S. sovereignty and efforts to "deceive the international community through false claims about its intelligence collection campaigns."

House Republicans also criticized the Biden administration for not acting sooner to shoot down the aircraft as it hovered from Montana to South Carolina, though defense officials said they disabled its surveillance capabilities.

After the balloon was detected and photos were widely shared online, the Chinese government claimed the object was a civilian weather balloon that had blown off course.

Beijing failed to provide any additional information, including the balloon’s self-steering capabilities or its modern signal surveillance techniques that were "capable of conducting signals intelligence collection" with multiple antennas and other equipment designed to upload sensitive information and solar panels to power them, U.S. officials said.

The U.S. also said the balloon was tied to a major surveillance program run by China’s military, which includes the use of similar aircraft in more than 40 countries under the direction of the People’s Liberation Army. Similar balloons have sailed over five continents, according to the U.S.

COMMENT:   China is testing us, seeing how far we'll really go in confronting the Chinese military.  Most China followers I've read believe China thinks we're a fading nation.  We have to prove that we aren't if our ability to deter warfare is to be maintained...and warfare is distinctly possibly if China makes a move against Taiwan.

There is nothing new on the "object" shot down over Alaska by the U.S. Air Force Friday.  Odd, though, that an object the size of a car flying at 40,000 feet was detected only by our Defense Department.  All modern airliners flying at that altitude have radar, and many airliners fly over Alaska.  Did none of them detect the object?  And what about the many ground radars in Alaska, a state that depends heavily on aircraft to carry on each day.  No detection?  Hmm.

February 11, 2023