(Republicaninformer.com)- Was the Chinese balloon a weather balloon? A spy balloon?
The 19FortyFive website thinks not. They believe it was a “trial balloon.” China may have acquired some actual intelligence, but that would have been just an added benefit to the primary goal.
Most likely, Beijing’s primary objective in launching a balloon above North America was to gauge how the American people and government would react. Knowing your opponent provides critical information to triumph. Chinese military and political strategists, notably Mao and Sun Tzu, teach to get familiar with potential foes.
Beijing may have learned how its primary opponent, the U.S., reacts to something like a balloon.
It takes more than counting ships, aircraft, or tanks or calculating industrial capacity to assess a potential adversary effectively. It entails the elusive understanding of aspects of the culture and civilization of the adversary.
China will most likely rework its “three warfares” plan using what has been learned about American psychology. Three warfares refer to China’s all-consuming endeavor to use legal, media, and psychological techniques to sway the political and strategic landscape in its favor. Mao Zedong, the founder of the Chinese Communist Party, taught his followers that war is politics with bloodshed, while politics is war without bloodshed. In other words, there is never a period of calm in the Maoist worldview. China’s Communist Party lives in a constant state of conflict.
You’ve learned if an adversary overreacts to an intrusion that doesn’t directly threaten them.
Floating “trial balloons” have strategic value. The Great Chinese Balloon Blitz of 2023 taught us that lesson.
The building of anti-access sensors and weapons by the People’s Liberation Army, mainly to kill American troops, sailors, and pilots in huge numbers, is one worrying trend about which the general public seems to be mostly oblivious. However, when an unarmed foreign aircraft arrives over the center of North America, we freak out.
We should have learned by now one important lesson. China is always on the attack in some form or another. Knowing both yourself and your opponent will put you in proper strategic positioning.
