It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a super spy balloon!

All eyes have been skyward this week as a large Chinese Spy Balloon was traveling some sixty thousand miles above the United States. Although the Chines government claimed that it was a weather balloon gone awry, that does not seem to be the case. The trajectory carried it close to the jet stream but also over significant bases along our missile defense system. According to reports, it first approached the continental US after crossing over Alaska and parts of Canada. The military said it was tracking it and jamming systems so that it could learn little from trying to detect electronic data from the bases it flew over or elsewhere.

Republicans were making wild claims over this balloon, demanding that the President order it shot down. The former president’s son urged people in Montana to run outside, fire into the air and take it down. Of course, even an AR-15 does not have that kind of range, so I am uncertain what he thought he was accomplishing by that message. It was true, however, that the right wing was going kinda bonkers here. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs explained the balloon weighed over 1000 pounds and could not be easily taken down over occupied territory since they expected a wide litter field and did not know the makeup of the payload. Despite the criticism from the right, President Biden agreed with his military and told them to shoot it down when it could be done safely. Senator Tom Cotton, (R-AK) who has been said to have Presidential ambitions, strongly criticized the President for not immediately ordering the balloon shot down.

So, finally, on Saturday, the balloon crossed the coast of South Carolina and was over the Atlantic Ocean, the military planes shot it down with a rocket. The debris landed close to shore in about 47 feet of water, which the military claimed would make retrieval easier. The litter field was about 1200 feet wide. So the issue was handled carefully and safely and not histrionically, as some would have wanted. There will be a fall-out diplomatically, of course, for as President Biden said, China invaded our nation’s sovereignty. European nations and Canada supported his actions. Canada also reported that its’ sovereignty was invaded. At the same time, another Chinese balloon was traveling across South America.

After taking office, the Biden administration learned that Chinese balloons traveled across America at least three times during the previous administration. Neither the State Department nor the Pentagon shared this information with the American people when DJT was in office. Possibly those balloons were not as visible to the naked eye on a clear day as this slow-moving balloon was as they were said to be fast-moving. DJT of course, denied that this ever happened as he said the Chinese had too much respect for him to do this. Even so, today’s Pentagon confirmed the flights occurred then.

This week was to have been the first time that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken traveled to China and met with the leaders of that country. Now, because of this balloon flight, that trip is canceled, and no one knows now when it will be rescheduled. Initially, the Chinese authorities apologized; after the shooting down, they were not conciliatory. China has been making aggressive moves in the South China Sea in recent years, building fake islands and creating bases on what the rest of the world considered international territory. Recent flights close to Taiwan were considering menacing. While these things were happening, the US has been beefing up military assistance to Taiwan and encouraging the Japanese self-defense units. Just this week, we announced we would increase our military presence in the Philippines. None of these moves have pleased China. The US has also worked with the SEATO nations in considering mutual defenses and recently held exercises with South Korea, which were met with rockets fired by North Korea. There have been reports that a similar type of Chinese balloon crashed into the sea off Hawaii recently.

So, while we have been mostly focused on the War in Ukraine, China is once again reminding us they are also a nation to be reckoned with. Russia has been pushing for a greater relationship with China, which has disapproved of the Ukraine war, by asking for a personal visit later in the Spring by leader Xi. The Washington Post reported this week that Russia is trying to go on a charm campaign and visiting nations in Africa and elsewhere to gain their support. Many African nations have lucrative mining, construction, and defense contracts with both China and Russia and do not freely speak out against either country.

Speaking of China and Canada, I read this week that Canada has agreed to take in 10,000 Uyghur refugees, living outside of China over the next two years. The US has not agreed to take any. It is well known that China is increasing the pressure on this Muslim minority in their country to give up their religion and become more Chinese. They are trying to erase the Uyghur culture and indoctrinate the residents into the communist way of life. Women have been forcibly sterilized. Hundreds of thousands were removed from their homes and forced into labor camps. The US has refused to allow goods or crops from that part of China to be imported, as we assume they made most of those products with forced labor. Much of the world has criticized these practices as genocide; China responds it is dealing with terrorists in its country and will not accept any criticism about their efforts, so this is quite a sad situation.

When we look at countries that do not follow international law, we generally call them rogue countries. We often count countries such as North Korea and Iran in that category. However, we are increasingly seeing countries disregard the common courtesies of international diplomacy. We have long left the era where state leaders are said to not read each other’s mail. Spying is a given in this competitive world, so we see industrial espionage, spying for strategic gains such as about weapons and nuclear capability, and spying to gain an edge either on defense or offense. Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine, but the world cannot stop it with moral authority, so the authorities are taking photos and securing evidence toward the time they hope will be soon when Russia loses and can be held to account. Certainly, kidnapping children and taking them from Ukraine into Russia to repatriate them, as they claim, is against all law and is comparable to what the Chinese are doing. Russia wants to erase Ukraine, China wants to erase the Uyghurs, and Myanmar wants to erase the Rohingya. Iran and Afghanistan want to erase the presence and independence of women in public.

Somehow the world seems incapable of using moral force to stop these abuses, so what is the answer? I do not know, except that as I see more and more countries bending to authoritarian rule, I do not think this bodes well for the future. As a nation, the US does not want to go to war with either China or Russia, that would be devastating. But as we continue to arm those seen as enemies to each nation, it brings us closer to moving proxy wars into actual wars. Now, I agree that arming weaker nations when threatened by bully nations is correct, but what is the long path? Soon we will reach the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine has hung on, defeating a much larger force with tenacity, patriotism, and arms from other countries. No one expected it would last this long, but how long is too long? Again, I do not know the answer. Already the Republicans in the House are discussing reducing the aid to Ukraine and saying we should not be in this effort at all.

I hope that President Biden will address our role in these international crises when he gives the State of the Union address. The moral force of the US still means something across the world, so he needs to speak out. Of course, he also needs to speak up about so many other issues, where do I start? Biden can brag about the jobs he has created, but he also needs to speak out about the moves to deny Black history and to “not say gay” such as is seen in Florida. He needs to speak up for the George Floyd policing bill, even though it probably won’t go anywhere in the House. Those who won't raise the debt ceiling need to be chastised. He needs to address the goodness of Americans which has been shoved under the rug while all the haters stoke fears of those who are “other”. I hope he also speaks up for democracy and how we should treasure it. There have to be some better angels somewhere!

Today, Pope Francis, the Anglican Church Leader, and the Presbyterian Church Leader joined in speaking up for the rights of gay people across the world in their religious life and in their communities. They were speaking out together on a plane as the Pope finished his tour and was leaving Africa, where the LBGTQ communities are often criminalized and persecuted. That is an example of using moral authority.

“Til next week-Peace!