Leaders | China and America

Cold-war lessons from China’s spy balloon

To avoid perilous misunderstanding, the two sides should talk more

CORRECTION / This picture provided by the US Navy shows sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in the Atlantic ocean on February 5, 2023. - US President Joe Biden on February 6, 2023 defended the decision to wait until a Chinese balloon crossed the United States before shooting it down, and the White House said valuable intelligence was being culled from the device. (Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Tyler Thompson / US NAVY / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / US NAVY" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS / The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: corrects photographer's byline in metadata field [Petty Officer 1st Class Tyler Thompson] instead of [Petty Officer 1st Class Tyler Th]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you very much for all your attention and prompt action. We are sorry for the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any further information you may require. (Photo by PETTY OFFICER 1ST CLASS TYLER TH/US NAVY/AFP via Getty Images) — Image: Getty Images

Feb 9th 2023

There was something almost comic about the immense Chinese balloon, carrying equipment the size of a small passenger plane, that drifted over America for days until it was popped on February 4th by an American fighter jet. As cold-war-type moments go, it was light relief compared with, say, the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 or the crash-landing in 2001 of an American spyplane after a Chinese fighter collided with it. But this was no joke. America said the balloon was spying. For ordinary Americans, the threat from China was suddenly visible, overhead. In his state-of-the-union speech on February 7th, President Joe Biden warned: “make no mistake about it…if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did.”

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Spy in the sky”