Speaking of not trusting the government, it turns out that the infamous Chinese spy balloon that the military took down was not spying, and China had alerted U.S. officials that severe weather had blown it off-course. Moon of Alabama sets the record straight:
. . . One wonders how [New York Times reporter Sanger] can
assert a lack of communication when the Chinese side insists with evidence that
it in fact communicated a
lot . As the Global Times writes:
The Chinese Foreign Ministry
expressed strong dissatisfaction and protested against the US' use of force to
shoot down a Chinese civilian unmanned airship, urging the US to properly
handle the incident.
The Chinese side has verified the
situation and communicated with the
US side multiple times, saying the unintended entry of the airship into US
airspace was due to force majeure and
the incident was totally an accident, the ministry said.
The Chinese foreign ministry asserts
similar:
China strongly disapproves of and
protests against the US attack on a civilian unmanned airship by force. The
Chinese side has, after verification, repeatedly
informed the US side of the civilian nature of the airship and conveyed that
its entry into the US due to force
majeure was totally unexpected. The Chinese side has clearly asked
the US side to properly handle the matter in a calm, professional and
restrained manner.
So China in fact had communicated
with the U.S. and discussed the issue.
Its claim that the balloon went
unexpectedly off course is, by the way, completely correct. The U.S. had long
tracked the balloon over Alaska and Canada and was equally surprised when
it suddenly
turned south:
Another U.S. official said
intelligence agencies began tracking the balloon several days ago, not long
after it had left China and began its controlled drift toward the Aleutian
Islands of Alaska. The official said American trackers continued to monitor the
balloon as it progressed through Canada toward the continental United States,
and were surprised when it crossed over into American airspace.
The cause of the surprising turn
last week was a polar vortex over Canada that also brought a
cold snap to the north-east:
We know the feeling when winter
digs its heels in, and we get endless days below seasonal. When this happens,
the jet stream becomes highly amplified with blocking mechanisms to trap the
cold.
We often look to Greenland for
strong blocking, but that wasn’t the case. The lobe of the stratospheric polar
vortex was free to swing readily across Eastern Canada but then made a swift
exit. A ridge of high pressure filled in behind, causing temperatures to rise
as fast as they fell. . . .
Read the rest of Moon
of Alabama’s report and analysis here. This information, needless to add,
is not being broadcast or reported in the mainstream media.
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