The U.S. shot down the Chinese balloon that invaded Canada-U.S. airspace for a week.
Sources say the federal government had been tracking the spy balloon for a week in which it invaded the airspace of the Canadian Arctic, Alberta and Saskatchewan before heading south into Montana in the U.S., according to CTV News. Apparently it was being tracked the entire time it was in Canadian airspace.
On February 2, 2023 the federal government finally released and announcement to the public about the spy balloon after it had already knowing flew over head for 5 days and crossed the border in to the U.S.
“Canadians are safe and Canada is taking steps to ensure the security of its airspace, including the monitoring of a potential second incident,” the National Defence Department said in a statement.
When it crossed into the U.S. the balloon spent time hovering nearby a military nuclear launch site in Montana before floating out to the ocean off the coast of Carolina where it was then shot down by the U.S. air force.
Beijing claims it’s a civilian weather balloon and was blown way off course but the Pentagon said when the public became fully aware of the balloon it was maneuvered to change course.
“Today, the United States took definitive action to bring down China’s high-altitude surveillance balloon that has violated U.S. and Canadian airspace and international law.” another statement said on February 4, 2023.
It’s strange it took so long for the suspected Chinese spy balloon to be shot down because if it was a suspected Russian spy balloon it would have been instantly shot out of the sky.
There’s claims the Chinese spy balloon wasn’t shot down sooner as it would put people on the ground in danger. However at least 80% of Canada is unpopulated where no one would have been in danger.
Trudeau’s government discussed sending in tanks to use on Canadian citizens and invoked the Emergencies Act during the Freedom Convoy peaceful protest in Ottawa. But allowed a Chinese hi-altitude surveillance balloon to invade Canada’s airspace.
Currently it is unknown exactly what the payload on the balloon is and what it was doing. The FBI and other U.S. agencies recover the pieces to rebuild and hopefully pull the data.
Should Canadians be concerned?
Yes, absolutely Canadians should be very concerned as the spy balloon invasion has raised more questions about national security and the safety of Canadians.
For obvious reasons the balloon could have been carrying a weapon as a payload such as emp, biological weapon or anything else. Remember the sting ray cell phone spy hardware the police some times use to middle man attack cell phones? Well one of those could have been on board siphoning data from unsuspected individuals on the ground invading their privacy or other cyber warfare and intelligence gathering activities.
This balloon could have also just been a way for the People’s Republic of China to test Canada and U.S. to understand what kind of reaction they could expect for future similar missions.
