Joe Biden’s waffling on whether or not China is eating our lunch notwithstanding, one thing that’s readily apparent to anyone with functional intelligence is that China is not our friend. They’re not even a friendly acquaintance. They’re a rival with a chip on their shoulder, seemingly licking their chops over our breakfast, lunch, dinner, and evening snack.

In this latest episode of “Frenemy Mine,” China launched a spy balloon into our airspace, then feigned innocence — “It’s just a simple, unfrozen, caveman weather balloon!” — when called on it and outrage when we belatedly shot it down. And their answer to us calling it what it clearly is – part of a surveillance program, whether it’s collecting data or gauging reaction or both – is to bleat that the US is engaging in “information warfare.”

I’d say it takes one to know one, but that sounds awfully schoolyard, doesn’t it? Still, that takes a lot of brass coming from a nation that excels in propaganda and spy craft and is the reigning champ of intellectual property theft.

Given the ratcheting tensions and our own feckless leadership, I suppose I’m thankful that we’re only engaged in a war of words, at this point, though with Xi Jinping’s consolidation of his power and their increasing flex of military and economic might, one has to wonder if it will remain a strictly verbal battlefield.

This “Moore to the Point” commentary aired on NewsTalkSTL on Friday, February 10th. Audio included below.