Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) pounced on 80-year-old President Joe Biden for his delayed response to shooting down a Chinese spy balloon when it strayed into U.S. air space Tuesday, Jan. 31. Biden finally ordered the Pentagon to shoot down the spy craft Feb. 5 over Myrtle Beach, South Caroline, about six miles off the coast. “The president taking it down over the Atlantic is sort of tackling the quarterback after the game is over,” Turner told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “This should never have been allowed to enter the United States and it never should have allowed to complete its mission,” Turner said, making more out of the national security significance, assuming the intel-gathering balloon collected valuable data on U.S. nuclear arsenals in Montana and over the Midwest. Whether China got any actionable intel is anyone’s guess. Most experts don’t think the spy craft produced anything significant.
Turner hopes to make political hay at a time that Biden’s approval ratings have shown a moderate bounce after a favorable unemployment rates showing the lowest unemployment rate in 55 years. Republicans look far from retaking the White House with only 76-year-old former President Donald Trump, possibly former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, announcing for president. Surviving Koch brother Charles Koch signals he has no plans of supporting Trump’s third run for president. While that’s nothing new, since Koch Industries did not support Trump in 2016, it does signal an active anti-Trump movement in the Republican Party. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) signaled he’ll do everything possible to find an alternative candidate to keep Trump from the GOP nomination. Turner, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, slammed Biden for a slow response.
Biden has serious problems with Communist China, all part of his own doing, starting off with 60-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken and 45-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan alienating Beijing. Blinken and Sullivan accused Beijing March 18, 2021 at an Anchorage, Alaska summit of genocide against Muslim Uyghurs in Western China. When it comes to more recent insults, Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping Sept. 23, 2022 he would send U.S troops to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese takeover. Xi accused Biden of violating the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act that forced the U.S. to recognize one China, the one in Beijing. Whatever the tensions with China over Taiwan, shooting down the Chinese spy balloon won’t help bilateral relations. Turner only looks at domestic U.S. politics, not the prospects of war with the Peoples Republic of China.
Biden’s Feb. 4 decision to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon carries certain risks of further deteriorating U.S.-Chinese relations. Biden had to act at some point, claiming the delay was only due to safety from the sizable debris field for U.S. citizens. “Allowing China to do a similar act before an clearly in this one no seeing the urgency of what was unfolding ,” Turner said, criticizing Biden for not informing Congress sooner, especially the Gang of Eight, of Republicans and Democrats. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.Y.), agreed with Biden’s more cautious approach. “This is an administration that’s been reaching out across the aisle to counter China aggression and espionage but also keep them at the table,” Booker said. Booker knows that U.S.-Chinese relations are at the lowest point in decades, with China threatening to invade Taiwan. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) pushed China to the brink visiting Taipei Aug. 4, 2022.
Booker and other Democrats know the abysmal state of relations with the U.S. and China. Democrats also know that Biden chose to fund a proxy war using Ukrainian troops against the Russian Federation. With one war active in Ukraine against the Kremlin, pushing China into a new war over Taiwan would be catastrophic for U.S. national security. ”To create another standard for Biden when Trump, it seems, allowed this to go over the United States is just a big hypocritical,” Booker said. Democrats and the press like to point out that Trump did nothing when confronted with Chinese surveillance balloons during his time in office. If Chinese spy balloons strayed into U.S. air space on Trump’s watch, it was only for brief moments, not, as Biden did, allowing the spy balloon to cross the entire United States. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed China’s spying activities.
Austin said that the Chinese surveillance balloon attempted to collect data on U.S. strategic nuclear sites around the country. Austn said “that the surveillance balloon that was brought down above U.S. territorial waters was being used by the Peoples Republic of China in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental U.S.” So, when Turner complains about Biden letting the balloon complete its mission traveling across the U.S., he has a point. How much data was actually collected is anyone’s guess. Most Pentagon analysts think that satellite data provides China with more active intel than anything the balloon collected on its transcontinental flight. Whether delayed or not, Biden did the right thing shooting down the balloon, sending Beijing a message about trespassing on U.S. territory. China continues to deny that its spy craft was anything other than a harmless weather balloon.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
