Wednesday, January 31st, the United States identified a foreign surveillance balloon the size of three buses, spotted over the Northern areas of the country, including Montana, and other states.

Although it is still unclear what the purpose of the balloon is, the Pentagon has been investigating the origins.

“We are confident that this high-altitude balloon surveillance balloon belongs to the People’s Republic of China,” said a personnel from the Pentagon.

Furthering this investigation, the Pentagon theorizes that this balloon is spying on various military buildings in the North, despite China’s insistence that this contraption is a “Meteorology surveillance balloon”.

The balloon has been flying over a number of sites that are an intelligence risk, such as various nuclear silos. Spokesperson from the Pentagon, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder stated that the United States has been tracking the balloon over Montana for a while now and that it is, “traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.”

The U.S. government sent fighter jets to investigate the device, but decided that it would not be in their best interest not to shoot it down, as the debris from the device would cause damage on the ground.

Right away, the U.S. department of defense contacted the Chinese government where they immediately claimed that the device was a “civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological purposes,” and that it flew far off its planned course.

However, it is very unlikely that a “meteorology balloon” from China would somehow find its way over Nuclear facilities. This would not be completely out of the ordinary, as their government owns facilities in Texas as well as North Dakota, and other various farmlike properties throughout the country.

There are still many unanswered questions about the appearance of this balloon. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed his upcoming trip to Beijing to speak with their government officials on the matter.

The question is now in the air about the future of the U.S. and China’s relations. There is already a lot of buzz around the Chinese raiding Taiwan, so could this be an attempt to see what technology we have to help the Taiwanese?