The balloon flights, some officials believe, are part of an effort by China to hone its ability to gather data about American military bases — in which it is most interested — as well as those of other nations in the event of a conflict or rising tensions
- Biden officials reportedly detected suspected Chinese surveillance balloons in 12 different countries across five continents before the recent incident
- The latest balloon's slow track over the US gave officials unique time to study it
- The three detected under Trump were called 'unidentified aerial phenomena'
I thought it was supposed to be a weather balloon