The more things change, the more they remain the same.

The United States Army started using balloons for resonance in the Civil War. While technology has advanced, aerial observation is still a great asset. We've gone from balloons to aircraft to satellites, but the target has changed to a great degree. In the 19th and 20th Centuries, is was often a physical item we were looking for (forces and their disposition, terrain, etc). Beginning in the latter part of the 20th Century, it's more communications, particularly computer communications, that can give us the intelligence we need. 

China does not have the fleet of resonance aircraft the US (or the West in general) has, but that doesn't mean they cannot try to get what they want. Case in point, the balloon they sent over the US earlier this year. Thanks to Joe Biden (You know, the Thingy), it was allowed to complete its passing over the entire US before we finally shot it down. And yes, it was transmitting information to China. Thanks Joe. 

But this is not all. It was not just one balloon, but four over the last two years 

Leaked secret documents detail up to four additional Chinese spy balloons

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware of up to four additional Chinese spy balloons, and questions lingered about the true capabilities of the one that flew over the continental United States in January and February, according to previously unreported top-secret intelligence documents.

The Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States this year, called Killeen-23 by U.S. intelligence agencies, carried a raft of sensors and antennas the U.S. government still had not identified more than a week after shooting it down, according to a document allegedly leaked to a Discord chatroom by Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard.

Another balloon flew over a U.S. carrier strike group in a previously unreported incident, and a third crashed in the South China Sea, a second top-secret document stated, though it did not provide specific information for launch dates.

A document produced by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and dated Feb. 15 — 10 days after the Air Force shot down the balloon that flew over the United States — contains the most detailed government assessment to date of Killeen-23 and two balloons from previous years, labeled Bulger-21 and Accardo-21. It was not clear from the documents if Bulger-21 and Accardo-21 were the same balloons that flew over the carrier strike group and crashed.

Bulger-21 carried sophisticated surveillance equipment and circumnavigated the globe from December 2021 until May 2022, the NGA document states. Accardo-21 carried similar equipment as well as a “foil-lined gimbaled” sensor, it says...

...Annotating what appear to be detailed photos of the balloon that flew over the United States, presumably taken from a U-2 spy plane, intelligence analysts assessed that it could generate enough power to operate “any” surveillance and reconnaissance technology, including a type of radar that can see at night and through clouds and thin materials...

The Soviets had to put satellites into orbit to monitor us like this, but China uses centuries old technology to deploy a reconnaissance  device to monitor our military. Will someone explain to Joe this is a hostile act by a foreign power and needs to be reacted to, i.e., shoot it down upon coming over American airspace, Oh, that's right, the Big Man is still on the take. 

Good lord how did we get into this mess.