Beau of the Fifth Column: Let's talk about China, balloons, recovery, and briefings....

[Warpy]

1. Balloons can't be steered and are most useful for studying air currents at altitude

This one can be steered: https://newatlas.com/aircraft/phasa-35-super-endurance-uav-maiden-flight/ Yes, the US has one, also, that stayed up for over a year. If China shot down US balloons, you can bet they were studying the upper atmosphere, not China. Our satellites and aircraft do a better job of that, the satellites in geosynchronous orbit and the aircraft steered into position.

And yes, everybody does it, even Ireland and Luxembourg listen in on neighboring countries. It justifies the jobs of the paranoiacs in governments.