On Jan. 28, 2023, a balloon was spotted in the air in U.S. territory traveling across many sensitive military sites. But, this was no ordinary balloon: it was a Chinese surveillance spy balloon, according to Sky News.

     The U.S. defense and military officials said the balloon entered the U.S. Air Defense zone north of the Aleutian Islands and moved largely over land across Alaska, and then into Canadian airspace in the Northwest Territories on Monday, Jan. 30. It crossed back into U.S. territory over northern Idaho on Tuesday, Jan. 31, the day the White House said president Joe Biden was first informed of it.

    According to Sky News, The Chinese government denied using it as a spy balloon; they said the craft was being used for weather research. China then accused Washington D.C. of sending its own espionage balloons over its territory, which the U.S. denied also.

      At around 2:39 p.m. EST on Feb. 4, an F-22 fighter jet fired a missile at the balloon, puncturing it while it was about six nautical miles off the coast near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This order was given by Biden after it had crossed into the country’s territory.

     U.S. officials said the military was constantly assessing the threat and concluded that the technology on the balloon didn’t give the Chinese significant information beyond what it could already obtain from satellites, though the U.S. took steps to mitigate what information it could gather as it moved along.

     The Pentagon also acknowledged reports of a second balloon flying over Latin America. “We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement. Officials said the balloons are part of a fleet that China uses for surveillance, and they can be maneuvered remotely through small motors and propellers. One official said they carry equipment in the pod under the balloon that is not usually associated with standard meteorological activities or civilian research.

     Tech and marketing teacher Mr. Brian McCormack stated, “Spying goes on all the time: the United States used spy balloons for years, so we shouldn’t expect the Chinese to not do the same. China has been our competitor for so long.”

     McCormack also stated, “During late 1900, there was turmoil in China, which the West exploited because they could. China was weak, so it was easy to exploit it. But now they think they should be the dominant power in the world because they were the middle kingdom. They think the whole world revolves around them. But they simply sent the surveillance spy balloon because they just don’t like the United States.”