Balloon intrusion

There is a plethora of questions both sides need to answer before playing to the gallery or hiding their skeletons

Strange acts solicit strange responses. That is how one can decipher the childish act of flying a so-called spy balloon by China over the US territory. After a wait-and-see of many days, the US aviators took down a Chinese spy balloon off the Atlantic coast, subsequently stirring a diatribe from Beijing. It is said that the craft spent several days inside the US and flew over South Carolina and other states before being struck by an F-22 military aircraft by the Pentagon. Though it sounds fictional, the fact of the matter is that it has now led to a full-blown diplomatic row between the two states.

There is a plethora of questions that both sides need to answer before playing to the gallery or hiding their skeletons. How did the Chinese balloon make it to US territory, and that too kept on hovering in its skies for so long? What objective Beijing had in flying that sortie, and why didn’t it inform the US if it was a mistaken intrusion into US airspace? No one is sure whether it was unmanned or carried espionage gadgets. This lack of proper data and deliberate communication gap is mysterious, and in need of some plain-talking.

This so-called surveillance balloon has upped the ante, and ties between the two great powers will surely take a dip. This is why US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin went on to term the operation a “deliberate and lawful action.” Likewise, with Beijing threatening with dire consequences, the matter is unlikely to be amicably addressed anytime soon. There is a puzzle to be solved. Why didn’t the US talk it out with China before shooting the intruding object down? And, likewise, what hampered Beijing to keep mum over such a strategic violation, keeping in view its track record of respecting international law. Both the states have erred in keeping their cool.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2023.

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