The airwaves in the U.S. may be totally dominated by madness regarding the Chinese weather balloon that President Biden ordered shot down by the U.S. Air Force last week. There is, nonetheless, a voice of reason that sticks out. James Flaten, a University of Minnesota professor who works with NASA to teach students using high-altitude balloons, told NPR that it would be possible for a high-altitude balloon launched from China to reach the U.S., but added that China may not have had much control over its path at such high altitudes. “I’m not saying they’re telling the truth,” Flaten said, “I’m just saying that’s a plausible story.”
The NPR report notes that, though there’s been speculation that China sent the balloon over North America on purpose, some doubt that the country was trying to provoke the U.S. at the very moment it was set to host Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “China has an interest in inserting some more stability into the relationship,” Dave Shullman, senior director of the China Global Hub at the Atlantic Council, told NPR’s Weekend Edition.
