There appears to be a lot of inflated hot air flying the western skies over Montana and US government officials are taking action.
The balloon belongs to China and is of a civilian nature, used for scientific research, such as meteorological matters," said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, who noted that after being affected by westerly winds and the limitation of its control capacity, it deviated seriously from its scheduled route.
This is almost verbatim the press release the U.S. used when the U-2 flown by Francis Gary Powers was shot down in 1960. No one bought the story then and many don't right now.
Blinken postpones China trip amid spy balloon row; US officials scramble to get rid of it https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/02/03/spy-balloon-chi…
Pentagon: Chinese spy balloon spotted over Western US https://apnews.com/article/chinese-surveillance-balloon-united-states-m…
Large Chinese reconnaissance balloon spotted over the US, officials say. The vessel is described as the size of three buses. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/chinese-spy-balloon-surveilling-us-seni…;
Blinken postpones China trip over 'unacceptable' Chinese spy balloon violation https://www.reuters.com/world/china-expresses-regret-that-civilian-airs…