BRETT VELICOVICH: …Why does it take an uproar from the public before the administration is going to take decisive action? I mean, this was a test and we played right into the Chinese long-term strategy of publicly highlighting how weak our response is. They wanted us to find this. The intent of this balloon was so much more than just surveillance. It was about instilling a sense of fear. It was about showing our defenses are vulnerable and the way this administration responded, China's government has proven just how vulnerable we really are.
In this photo provided by Brian Branch, a large balloon drifts above the Kingston, North Carolina area, with an airplane and its contrail seen below it. (Brian Branch via AP)
GORDON CHANG: …What Xi Jinping, the Chinese ruler, was doing, was saying you don't control your own airspace, and what he was also saying to the rest of the world is that the United States is incapable of defending itself. That has been a main propaganda narrative about the US for more than two years. This essentially started with the Biden administration, where the Chinese were saying, you can't deter us, you can't talk to us from a position of strength and your military doesn't work very well. So I think that that's absolutely right that Brett [Velicovich] talks about, it was an intimidation, and it certainly was a message to the rest of the world: Abandon the US, work with China.