Some real repercussions are starting to flow from Balloon Gate. CNN reported late yesterday that the Chinese Defense Ministry refused a call from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. The DOD, it reported, submitted a request for a call between Austin and China’s Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe immediately after the U.S. shootdown off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4, but China declined the request. “We believe in the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between the United States and the [People’s Republic of China] in order to responsibly manage the relationship,” Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in the statement.
In Washington the hysteria continues to balloon, so to speak, to massive proportions. The country that spies on everybody, including even its own supposed allies, is accusing China of running a massive surveillance program, one in which balloons play a key role. “The U.S. intelligence community has linked the Chinese spy balloon shot down on Saturday [Feb. 4] to a vast surveillance program run by the People’s Liberation Army, and U.S. officials have begun to brief allies and partners who have been similarly targeted,” the Washington Post breathlessly reported last night. “The surveillance balloon effort, which has operated for several years partly out of Hainan province off China’s south coast, has collected information on military assets in countries and areas of emerging strategic interest to China including Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines, according to several U.S. officials, who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.”
