Communists make really poor neighbours.

This week, in the spirit of raising international tensions for no good reason, the Chinese Communist Party has released a bunch of spy balloons and allowed them to drift over America.

Social media users have since set up the hashtag #ChineseSpyBalloon to track the progress of these two balloons, posting clips as they hang around military installations.

PHOTO: Clearest image of the Chinese spy balloon taken over Missouri by TSchlitt-Photography pic.twitter.com/L0tpUwEgIx

— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) February 3, 2023

The Pentagon clocked one of these Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloons several days ago but decided against knocking it out of the sky ‘for safety reasons’ in a decision that has left many furious. They question the sanity of this ‘wait and watch’ approach, especially as the balloon proceeded to casually hover over Montana where 150 silo-based missiles are housed, including those with nuclear capabilities.

That’s probably just a coincidence…

Flights in the area were temporarily suspended on Wednesday when fighter jets were put on standby awaiting White House orders, which picks holes in the ‘safety’ narrative. It is doubtful the Biden administration is worried about physical debris from a shoot-down. They are almost certainly more worried about the political fallout from the emotionally unstable communist regime.

Maybe if the Biden Administration wasn’t so worried about banning your gas stoves, they would have seen this Chinese spy balloon coming.

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 3, 2023

A Chinese spy balloon casually invading our air space for all to see, conducting day after day of espionage in broad daylight undisturbed, is a stark visual demonstration of Joe Biden’s crippling weakness and our excruciating national humiliation.

— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) February 3, 2023

Commercial flights typically cruise at 40,000 feet. Surveillance balloons, such as these, can go as high as 120,000 feet. Spy balloons are formidable. The two from China contain a super-structure 90 feet in length sitting beneath the balloon which includes solar panels and equipment.

The Chinese were quick to use the blasé approach to US airspace as domestic propaganda.

‘The balloon itself is a big target. If balloons from other countries could really enter the continental US smoothly, or even enter the sky over certain states, it only proves that the US’s air defence system is completely a decoration and cannot be trusted,’ wrote the Global Times.

China further denied that it was spying, although they didn’t offer a reasonable explanation for their first lost spy balloon. After denying the balloon was theirs, China later claimed it had been blown off course. Which is it – lost or orphaned?

‘To spy on the US with a balloon, one must both fall far behind to use a 1940s technology and be advanced enough to control its flight across the ocean. Those fabricating the lie are only exposing their ignorance.’

Video from Montana where a military jet just buzzed a neighborhood — then a massive flash in the sky.

A blast can be heard, screen goes white and smoke can be seen.

Chinese Spy Balloon Down? pic.twitter.com/AY4GcG8Ydp

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 4, 2023

Except that is not entirely true. Spy balloons are increasingly being favoured because they are particularly tricky to detect – like asteroids lurking away from the sunlight. It’s one of the reasons American military operations include them in their war against drug trafficking.

‘It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological purposes,’ admitted China. ‘Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure.’

Which translates to the Chinese government lying on its original reports when it denied ownership of the balloon. One could argue they are lying now, as their explanation does not account for the presence of the second balloon. Are we supposed to believe they lost two balloons in a week?

According to the BBC, an expert researcher, Dr Marina Miron, from Kings College London said:

‘The balloon could be controlled remotely by an operator on the ground. They’d be able to raise or lower the altitude of the balloon so that it could pick up different wind currents which are going in different directions. You would want to be able to make it linger over a spot to collect data. This is something you can do with a balloon which you cannot do with a satellite.’

Given how difficult these balloons are to track, its route so far has been recreated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric US department based on wind patterns and the few official sightings. It is suspected that it travelled across the top of the Pacific before crossing Alaska and Canada and then heading down into America.

Once might have been a far-fetched accident from the Chinese regime, but there’s a second balloon on the prowl over Latin America.

‘We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting over Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,’ said the Press Secretary for Brigadier General Patrick Ryder.

NEW: Pentagon says a 2nd Chinese spy balloon is “transiting Latin America”

Some theorize that these balloons are *not* for surveying nuke sites but a test trial for an EMP bomb.

Scary stuff.

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 4, 2023

The #ChineseSpyBalloon has VIOLATED our airspace & int’l law.

It’s already flown over some of the least densely-populated states in our nation with more in its path.

Now DOD says it’s heading east towards our nation’s biggest population centers. When will the admin take action? pic.twitter.com/GLzsJ0lzQp

— Congressman Byron Donalds (@RepDonaldsPress) February 3, 2023

In case you’re wondering, the Pentagon still exists – although these days they seem far more interested in passive-aggressive tweeting than national security.

‘The balloon is currently travelling 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 US government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information.’

We all know that if a US spy balloon was off on a joyride over Beijing it would have been shot down immediately and taken to a secure lab. Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher pointed this out to the Biden administration, saying:

‘If this were an American asset over Chinese airspace, do you think they’d hesitate for one second to shoot that down? They’re testing us. They’re mocking us. They’re trying to embarrass us and of course, they’re trying to collect as much sensitive intelligence as possible from us. So, the response I’ve seen thus far from the administration raises more questions than they answer.’

The second balloon appears to have tipped the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, over the edge. He cancelled his long-awaited trip to Beijing over the incident.

‘Shoot down the balloon,’ posted former President Donald Trump on Truth Social.

He has a point, given that one of the balloons is casually making its way toward the Whiteman air force base in Missouri where the Stealth Bombers are parked.

?BREAKING: I’m calling for an investigation and demanding answers from the Biden Admin. on why a Chinese spy balloon was allowed to hover over critical military infrastructure in Missouri and across the interior of the U.S. without any intervention. pic.twitter.com/c25ZEGKpWC

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) February 3, 2023

US officials have admitted that they were monitoring the Chinese spy balloon since it flew over the Aleutian Islands.

So, we didn’t shoot the balloon down over water and instead let it enter our continental airspace?

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) February 3, 2023

While there was ample opportunity to shoot the first balloon down when it was in a sparsely populated area, it is now approaching cities. The Gastonia Police Department in North Carolina issued a warning to its residents asking them to refrain from shooting at the balloon.

‘If the now infamous Chinese “weather balloon” makes its way over Gastonia, please don’t call the police to report it. We don’t have the capability to response to an altitude of 60,000 feet to check it out. We are pretty sure the Feds would want us to stay out of it. And finally, please don’t take potshots at it with your handguns in an attempt to bring it down on your own.’

…and I am ‘pretty sure’ teenagers are putting up the Facebook posts of the Gastonia Police Department.

Considering America has admitted it knew about the first balloon while it was still on approach over the ocean, the obvious question is being asked, ‘Why wasn’t it shot down before it came over land?’ There is a follow up, ‘Will the US military shoot it down once it moves over the water?’ Neither have been sufficiently answered. As it stands, the Biden administration will allow them to float back to Beijing.

These rogue Chinese spy balloons come at the same time Chinese President Xi Jinping has openly instructed the largest standing army in the world to prepare to invade Taiwan in 2027 – according to the Director of the CIA, William Burns.

‘Now, that does not mean that he’s decided to conduct an invasion in 2027, or any other year, but it’s a reminder of the seriousness of his focus and his ambition. Our assessment at CIA is that I wouldn’t underestimate President Xi’s ambitions with regard to Taiwan.’

This is not the type of high-risk pre-war environment that you want spy balloons sneaking around in. At the very least, America should adopt China’s zero-tolerance approach to hostile aircraft.

Alternatively, others have called for the balloon to be captured and examined as a way of proving, once and for all, whether the Chinese Communist Party has been lying about the nature of its high-altitude balloons.

One wonders what the Australian Labor government would do in this circumstance? If China sends a spy balloon to Australia, the Albanese regime would probably issue Beijing with a tax bill for its carbon emissions rather than see it as a threat to national security. Greens leader Adam Bandt might go so far as to praise it as Net Zero military technology.