‘Plausible’ Xi didn’t know about balloon: China panel chair, Politico, Feb. 10, 2023.
By ALEXANDER WARD, MATT BERG and LAWRENCE UKENYE
BREAKING: The Pentagon tracked a “high-altitude object” over U.S. airspace over the last 24 hours, National Security Council spokesperson JOHN KIRBY told reporters Friday. Flying at 40,000 feet high, it posed a “reasonable threat” to civilian flight. President JOE BIDEN this morning ordered the military to shoot down the object, which was roughly the size of a small car, after a recommendation from military officials. The military used an F-22 aircraft to take down the object and used a "sidewinder missile" to do so, Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said. That device is now downed and landed within U.S. territorial waters. It’s unclear if it is a second Chinese spy balloon, however.
Which is quite the intro to our lead interview…
The chair of the House China Select Committee said it’s “plausible” Chinese leader XI JINPING didn’t know about the spy balloon sent into American airspace last week, but history works against that narrative.
Biden administration officials assessed that was likely the case during briefings with lawmakers Thursday, people familiar with the contents told NatSec Daily. Rep. MIKE GALLAGHER (R-Wis.), tapped by Speaker KEVIN McCARTHY to head the select panel, says that may be true.
But Gallagher told NatSec Daily the balloon episode fits a decadeslong pattern of Beijing seeking to embarrass foreign leaders during or ahead of important encounters, meaning he can't rule out that Xi did know at least something about it.
He cited the confrontation between Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN and national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN with their counterparts two years ago in Alaska; the controversy over the stairs then-President BARACK OBAMA should use to walk off Air Force One during a visit to China; and even a 1958 moment when MAO ZEDONG held a swimming-pool meeting with Soviet Premier NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV.
Such displays are “in the Chinese Communist Party’s DNA,” Gallagher said, suggesting it’s possible that Beijing sent the balloon over America with similar intentions. After all, Blinken was set to meet with Xi only a week after the device first floated across the U.S.
So what to do about China now? Gallagher suggested a litany of initiatives.
The U.S. should move Taiwan to the front of the line for nearly $20 billion in foreign military sales, turning into a “porcupine” China wouldn’t dare invade. Lawmakers and the Biden administration should expose the partnership between China and Russia, which the panel chair called “an alliance against the West.” Further, the U.S. should consider starting a joint program with Australia to station ground-based, intermediate-range missiles on the island nation’s northern coast. And all Chinese police outposts operating in the U.S. should be shut down.
In the meantime, Gallagher said he soon plans to go to the Indo-Pacific region by himself and then take a bipartisan group with him on a separate trip, though he declined to share any concrete plans with us. He also encouraged McCarthy to go to Taiwan just as his predecessor NANCY PELOSI (D-Calif.), did last year. “It’s not a violation of the status quo,” Gallagher said of McCarthy’s long-telegraphed visit. “It’s well within his right to go.”
Gallagher said that the bipartisan group of lawmakers will aim to develop a report of the policy ideas that could pass both congressional chambers and land on the president’s desk. The goal is to be an “incubator and accelerator for good China policy.” Immediately, though, the committee could endorse policies for and amendments to the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act, Gallagher suggested.
Hours after the interview, a National Security Council official said that Chinese companies with ties to Beijing’s spy-balloon program would be placed on the Commerce Department’s Entity List Friday, effectively blacklisting exports to those firms.