The U.S. tracked what officials described as a Chinese reconnaissance balloon over the continental states this week, in what would be an aggressive act of intelligence gathering over sensitive American national security sites.The balloon sighting came days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken was to make a planned trip to Beijing, according to U.S. officials, throwing into question efforts to repair relations between the two powers who are at odds over a host of global and regional issues.

Two Air Force F-22 fighters scrambled from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada to Montana, where the balloon was observed, before the administration decided not to shoot it down.

Shooting it down would be aggressive. It would mean committing and taking a stand. So that’s a no-go.

The U.S. maintains an arsenal of 150 nuclear-armed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. A senior defense official said the U.S. government was taking steps to shield sensitive sites, but added that the reconnaissance systems on the balloon were presumed to have “limited additive value” beyond what the Chinese could gather from their low-earth-orbit satellites.

“Presumed”. “Limited”.

But don’t worry, Biden sent a strong message.

The Chinese embassy in Washington didn’t respond to a request for comment. Following the incident, the State Department summoned China’s chargé d’affaires in Washington, Xu Xueyuan, “to deliver a very clear and stark message,” a U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal.

“We will be very angry. And then we will write a letter telling you how angry we are.”

One U.S. official said China had previously sent high-altitude surveillance balloons over the continental U.S. “It’s pretty low risk for them,” the official said

It certainly is.

“I would invite my colleagues in China to meet us halfway there and work hard to keep those lines of communication open,” Mr. Austin said in January. But the Chinese haven’t engaged in a top level dialogue with Mr. Austin following that appeal.