Chinese ‘Spy Balloon’ Spotted Over USA, Possibly Monitoring…

As far as global politics are concerned, it has become rather easy to tell who is on who’s side in the grand scheme of it all.  We know precisely which countries allow other other countries to get away with stuff, and we usually know why too.

And, perhaps even more importantly, we know which nations are trying to get one over on other nations, and we often know why.

This week’s international tension comes to us from the skies high above Montana, by way of Beijing.

The U.S. government is monitoring a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been moving over northern states over the past several days.

Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a briefing on Thursday afternoon that the U.S. government has detected a high-altitude surveillance balloon over the continental U.S.

“The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now. The U.S. government to include Norad, continues to track and monitorit closely. The balloon is currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground. Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years. Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Ryder said.

So, what’s next?

A well-placed senior U.S. official told Fox News that the government is still considering a variety of options with how to deal with the Chinese spy balloon, saying that the options presented to Biden and his national security team included concerns that if the military did shoot down the balloon, there could be civilian casualties the ground.

The White House hasn’t ruled out shooting the balloon down if it were deemed safe to do so, according to the source.

Early analysis of the situation seemed to indicate concerns that the balloon was perhaps spying on sensitive military silo sights in the region.