Balloon offensive a new flashpoint

When a large white balloon drifted into United States (US) airspace over Alaska on January 28, few had expected it to spark an international crisis and reverse months of progress in the US-China relationship

When a large white balloon drifted into United States (US) airspace over Alaska on January 28, few had expected it to spark an international crisis and reverse months of progress in the US-China relationship. But the relatively low-tech craft has cast a shadow on arguably the most important diplomatic relationship of this decade, forced both the US and China to abandon plans to scale back recent flare-ups, and escalated fears of a new era of innocuous but insidious surveillance warfare. That the balloon, likely fitted with sensors and high-resolution cameras, appeared to pass close to sensitive US military installations sparked a domestic political storm, forcing US President Joe Biden to scramble jets and shoot it down. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called off a highly anticipated visit to China. Beijing responded with belligerence, indicating that it was not looking to step back, undoing the goodwill generated by the meeting between Mr Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Bali last November, and recent moves to blunt the intensifying battle over gaining the technological edge, especially in the semiconductor industry.

Beijing has responded with belligerence, indicating that it was not looking to step back, undoing the goodwill generated by the meeting between President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Bali last November, and recent moves to blunt the intensifying battle over gaining the technological edge, especially in the semiconductor industry. (AFP)

There are hundreds of weather balloons gliding across the world and some, especially China, have questioned the US response, given the low-tech nature of the craft in an era of drones and satellites with high-resolution cameras. Experts, however, contend that this incident is worrying for precisely the same reason — the innocuous way surveillance was likely attempted. They point to similar Chinese balloons spotted in the US and Europe in recent years, and better-quality images obtained by craft operating within the Earth’s atmosphere that is more manoeuvrable than satellites.

With neither side looking likely to back down, there is now a slim possibility of steadying the rocky relationship. This fits in with the overall arc of China’s actions to establish its influence around the world, especially with countries with which it shares adversarial relations or in regions where it is involved in territorial disputes. It is akin to China’s use of fishing boats backed by security vessels in the South China Sea. These actions are aimed at burnishing Beijing’s credentials as a global military power and testing the security and defences of adversaries. After fighter jets and sophisticated submarines, this strategy has now deployed its most simple but crafty weapon yet — the humble balloon.