# Chinese spy balloon incident

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Chinese spy balloon incident," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/chinese-spy-balloon-incident/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*2023 controversy over a high-altitude balloon that crossed U.S. airspace, widely labeled in media coverage as a "Chinese spy balloon"; John Kiriakou notes no U.S. government official ever officially confirmed it was conducting espionage, and says he personally believes it was likely a weather balloon, since satellite surveillance already renders such balloons unnecessary for spying.*

- **Year:** 2023
- **Official confirmation of espionage purpose:** None, per Kiriakou — only media outlets labeled it a "Chinese spy balloon"
- **Kiriakou's assessment:** Likely a weather balloon
- **Kiriakou's reasoning:** Existing satellite capability can already read license plates from orbit, making balloon-based spying unnecessary

The **Chinese spy balloon incident** was a 2023 controversy over a high-altitude balloon that crossed U.S. airspace and was widely labeled in media coverage as a "Chinese spy balloon." [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) says no U.S. government official ever officially confirmed the balloon was engaged in espionage — the label came entirely from media outlets — and that he personally believes it was likely a weather balloon, since the U.S. already has satellite surveillance sophisticated enough to read license plates on individual cars, making balloon-based spying unnecessary.[1]

## The NASA weather balloon anecdote

Kiriakou illustrates the ordinariness of high-altitude balloon sightings with an anecdote from a commercial flight from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles. Flying over Arizona at 30,000 feet, the pilot announced a weather balloon at 150,000 feet and banked the plane so passengers could see it — an enormous, silver object the pilot identified as one of NASA's weather balloons, adding that in 25 years of flying it was the first one he had personally seen.[2]

## See also

- [Mass Surveillance](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mass-surveillance)

## Sources

1. CIA Spy Breaks Silence On Elon Musk's Twitter Files — John (2023-04-12), at 55:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmPpOps1yeI&t=3332s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-04-12-danny-jones/
2. CIA Spy Breaks Silence On Elon Musk's Twitter Files — John (2023-04-12), at 56:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmPpOps1yeI&t=3365s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-04-12-danny-jones/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/chinese-spy-balloon-incident/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt