The US shot down the Chinese balloon that was suspected of carrying out espionage activities
Was it a spy aircraft? It is not known as yet, but the US shot down the Chinese balloon anyway. Almost the size of three buses, it had intruded into US airspace, and American security experts believed that it had surveillance capabilities. Its occurrence had forced the shutdown of three airports in a “national security effort.” Beijing did own up the airship but claimed it was meant for civilian meteorological and other scientific purposes; it also regretted the airship’s straying into US airspace. Perhaps what China said is correct, but it is undeniable that the dragon is pugnacious by temperament. Under Xi Jinping especially, China has undergone a dangerous transformation: communism and jingoism, both violent ideologies, have blended, resulting in a political doctrine whose lethality is more than that of either of its parents. China tends to weaponise everything — from its businesses to the apps and gadgets it sells all over the world. Apart from stealth, there is also direct action. A few months ago, a tracking and satellite support vessel, Yuan Wang 5, reached Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port. India objected to the arrival of the ship but neither the Chinese Communist Party nor Colombo paid any heed to our concerns. This was despite the fact that India had come to the rescue of Sri Lanka at the time of its greatest economic crisis in recent times. This underlined the influence China enjoys in Sri Lanka (as also in many other smaller nations). Military experts believe that Yuan Wang 5 at the Hambantota port, strategically located in the Indian Ocean, could have an adverse effect on our missile and satellite programmes. Evidently, Yuan Wang 5 was part of the Chinese project of encircling India.
But it is the US which Xi’s China, which dreams of global hegemony, sees as its main adversary. The balloon too could very well have been one of the many espionage undertakings. It is unhappy that the US continues to support Taiwan. Some time ago, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi even visited the nation that China claims as its province. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently postponed a weekend visit to Beijing that was expected to thaw the ties between the two biggest economies; this must have further annoyed CCP bosses. Two and a half years ago, it was glaring at Japan in the east, threatening Australia in the Indo-Pacific, posing belligerently in the Himalayas against India, annoying other neighbors, blasting the Five Eyes alliance, fighting a trade war with the US. Even Adolf Hitler dreaded a two-front engagement when he began the Second World War, but not Xi. However, a lot has happened since then, the most important of which are the setbacks Russia, China’s ‘no limits’ ally, has received in the Ukraine war. Big powers under dictators must face blowback. Even when they fly balloons.
