![]() ![]() ![]() It has been a kind of farcical reversal of what Communist China faced for decades after its founding in 1949: unrelenting efforts by the United States to spy on-and even subvert-their country. Having recently published a book, Agents of Subversion, about a spy plane sent into China during the height of the Korean War, I could not help but be struck by the profound historical irony of the spy balloon frenzy. Seen in the larger history of U.S.-China relations, does the spy balloon take on any greater meaning, and what lessons might be learned from the past? But after a weekend spate of the United States shooting down objects floating in the stratosphere over North America-and Beijing reporting its own “ mystery object” over the Yellow Sea-serious questions are emerging about surveillance technologies and the proper diplomatic or even military response. Laughter can be the best medicine for an international crisis in the making-at least involving incidents where no one gets hurt. heartland to the partisan hysterics unleashed in the U.S. There’s something inherently ridiculous about balloons and the series of bad decisions and misplaced rhetoric, from whatever possessed China to float a gigantic blimp over the U.S. With the spy balloon commanding nonstop cable news coverage much of last week, I found it difficult-even as a historian of Cold War espionage between the United States and China-to resist laughing out loud at the whole affair. ![]()
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