Chinese Surveillance Balloon Left To Fly American Skies

Float like a butterfly, sting like a Nuclear EMP payload platform?

On January 31, 2023, it was learned that the U.S. military was monitoring a Chinese stratospheric surveillance balloon, roughly the size of three school buses, that had been hovering over the northern U.S.

“The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,” said Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, to NBC News.

“The United States says it is a Chinese spy balloon without a doubt,” the Associated Press reported. “The Pentagon says the balloon, which is carrying sensors and surveillance equipment, is maneuverable and has shown it can change course. It has loitered over sensitive areas of Montana where nuclear warheads are siloed, leading the military to take actions to prevent it from collecting intelligence.”

China has maintained that the balloon was a simple civilian-use meteorology research “airship” that had been blown off course.

At first, President Biden permitted the balloon to remain in American skies, out of a supposed concern for the uncontrollable nature of debris falling to Earth, in the event the decision should be made to shoot it down.

Among others, two people advocating for intercepting or shooting down the balloon were former President Donald Trump and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Two days ago, an Air Force fighter aircraft shot down the balloon off the Carolina coast, to which the U.S. moved to recover the debris.

We are told that the balloon was a Chinese surveillance platform, and that is all there is to it.

And perhaps it was.

Of course, it is no mistake to call the Chinese balloon a surveillance device, in the same sense to which we might call a scope on a rifle a surveillance device. My words should not be taken to mean that I am saying that the balloon was not or could not have been surveillance-based.

I mean only that other angles can be worth considering.

For aside from the purpose of targeted surveillance, some have speculated as to what other ends such a balloon might be sent to achieve.

According to some intelligence officials, high-altitude balloons, such as the one China has floated over the mountain state military bases in the U.S. this week, are considered a key “delivery platform” for secret EMP strikes on America’s electric grid.

“In a 2015 report for the American Leadership & Policy Foundation, Air Force Maj. David Stuckenberg, one of the nation’s leading EMP experts, wrote extensively about the threat balloons carrying bombs pose to national security,” the Washington Examiner wrote. “’Using a balloon as a WMD/WME platform could provide adversaries with a pallet of altitudes and payload options with which to maximize offensive effects against the U.S.,’ he wrote in the report. ‘A high altitude balloon could be designed, created, and launched in a matter of months. There is nothing to prevent several hundred pounds of weapons material from being delivered to altitude,’ he added.”

The Examiner went on to say that, “On Friday, he told Secrets, ‘China’s recent balloon flyover of the United States is clearly a provocative and aggressive act. It was most likely a type of dry run meant to send a strategic message to the USA. We must not take this for granted.’”

I am mentioning this because an EMP detonation above U.S. airspace could damage the nation greatly, in particular its power grid, which is vulnerable to an EMP strike.

As we know, an EMP, or electro-magnetic pulse, can be generated from a small-yield nuclear weapon detonated at an appropriate altitude in order to traverse the atmosphere and induce current in all circuits, even if those circuits themselves are not powered. As a result of this, any wire, circuit or nano-circuit would have current and, consequently, cause a surge that is known to fry electronics. Thus, an EMP would nullify virtually all electronics, including smartphones, computers, telecom equipment, and the power grid, in an instant.

The result would be America, or any other nation, being forcefully reverted back to the nineteenth century.

I do not think it goes too far to say that, in comparison to the chaos following the fallout of an EMP strike, the thought of an ice storm or hurricane severing power for weeks or several months might be viewed as a blessing.

Naturally, none of this is secret, since congressional hearings have taken place and books have been written on the subject.

But in initially being told of the event, it is interesting to note that the Biden administration did nothing to stop this unlawful violation of U.S. airspace. Nor, initially, did the Pentagon act to stop the balloon from continuing its course.

Certainly, they appeared to be satisfied with permitting a Chinese balloon with a possible nuclear warhead payload to fly above the United States unobstructed.

Some have asserted that Biden was allowing the balloon to accomplish its mission, claimed by some to be an impeachable offense, and which, among other things, is claimed to have illustrated his collusion with communist China.

Others have been saying that the time to shoot the balloon down was before it entered U.S. airspace, instead of waiting to act after it might have already been permitted to do its job, little more than a case of closing the barn door after the horse has already escaped.

One person to criticize Biden’s inaction was Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, who said, as a result of the occurrence, that “Americans are endangered and our enemies are emboldened.” Gianforte added that, “Clearly this went to the President's desk and he chose not to act.”

According to some, U.S. authorities hesitating to shoot down the balloon for the reason of uncontrollable debris is not as easily believed as the possibility of our leaders distancing themselves from the potentiality of such an act inadvertently detonating an EMP or nuclear payload.

Of course, now that the balloon has been forcibly removed from U.S. airspace, it is possible that the balloon was not carrying a nuclear EMP payload. But, in truth, the balloon’s actual mission was unknown, as it currently still is. Though widely reported in the media to be a “surveillance” balloon, it is difficult for most to have known beforehand the technology’s true aim.

I do not seek to refute that the reasoning of practicing restraint in the face of the possibility of falling debris posing a danger to the public or causing collateral damage is not factual, for it is a reality that a small handful of people could technically be effected or killed by it.

The point is that in order to not kill a couple of people, the Pentagon instead appeared to have decided to risk tens of millions of people.

To be sure, for what if the balloon was carrying a nuclear EMP?

And even if it was not, we do know that such balloons are certainly capable of doing so.

The thing to keep in mind here is that the military effectively stood down to Communist China and allowed, for a time, the spy balloon to continue on its passage over American airspace untouched.

I have heard some contend that, because the balloon was at 60,000 feet, the area in which it was residing might not be technically classified as air space. But, as we know, any amount of feet over U.S. skies still constitutes the air space over America, and the balloon was positioned at the proper altitude to which an EMP strike could cripple America.

Nonetheless, in the face of rising tensions between the U.S. and China, it is clear to many that this episode was intended to serve as some kind of test. I have heard some go as far as to say that these events were intended to prime the American people to accept the continual presence of Chinese weapons platforms in American skies.

And the situation becomes even more foreboding when one takes into consideration that China, in recent years, has repeatedly suggested that they are at war with the U.S.

Certainly, the narrative that this balloon’s mission was based in surveillance is difficult for some to accept when it is known that China utilizes their specialized satellites for those same intentions.

This is not to say that these balloons cannot be used for surveillance aspirations.

I mean only that, at least in this instance, it is badly suited to the task.

But this episode is not novel, nor is it an isolated incidence.

Indeed, we have been told that a second high-altitude balloon was detected over Latin America.

And as we know, similar objects, since 2020, have been spotted over India, Japan, Hawaii and the Philippines. And since 2021, the Pentagon has studied 366 unexplained incidents, 163 of which were balloons.

One article from The Guardian documents how the Pentagon has been testing surveillance balloons across the United States.

It is also recognized that, during World War II, Japan ferried balloons into the U.S. for the purpose of bombing strategic locations.

It is difficult to make the case that we now do not live in a world of continual surveillance, though some methods of keeping watch are more noticeable than others.

And yet it is a reality that is becoming more easily observed by each passing moment.

Surveillance balloons are merely a small part of surveillance culture.

One would think that those claiming to be worried about being surveilled would have long recognized the threat that comes from the smartphone lying in their pocket, or their device’s China-connected TikTok app.

But it may also be well to assess the looming threat posed by an EMP attack over American skies.

Balloon technology, like so much else, is not necessarily a bad thing.

Humans enjoy exploring. Many have ridden in hot air balloons for entertainment purposes. Several miles up in the sky, people have famously space-jumped for a simple Red Bull advertisement.

But if this was a test-run for a delivery system to disrupt above-ground power in an effort to take America back to the nineteenth century, one must wonder about what might come to pass the next time a foreign balloon is permitted to freely travel America’s skyline.

And should the line of thought be executed, then there is another question in need of asking: Who would want, or benefit, from such an occurrence?