Another Chinese spy balloon in Alaska? Users on social media ask as US shoots down ‘high altitude object’

A ‘high altitude object’ was shot down in Alaska on Friday, days after a Chinese spy balloon was shot down off the coast in South Carolina.

The White House spokesman John Kirby said that the object was “the size of a small car” and was flying over a sparsely populated area. The decision to shoot it down was taken by president Joe Biden as the balloon posed threat to civilian aircraft.

Plus, its unknown origin prompted a quick response from the House, especially given last Saturday’s spy balloon saga.

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However, due to the similarity of the two incidents, users on social media wondered if this was also a spy balloon from China.

“These exceptional Americans have been working overtime on this challenge, including not just tracking and intercepting this latest incursion, but the Chinese spy balloon from last week, and several other unidentified flying objects over Alaska in the past few weeks,” Dan Sullivan, Senator from Alaska, said on Twitter.  “I appreciated the senior Defense Department officials who briefed me this morning on the sighting of this latest object.”

Other users, however, were less objective with their reactions.

“With the shoot-down of the object over #Alaska, along w/ John Kirby’s press conference, this pendulum swing to a hawkish approach buttresses the narrative that the Biden Admin messed up handling the Chinese Spy Balloon – military action in Alaska today pushes that narrative home,” a user said on Twitter.

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“WTH! Shoot this one down but not a Chinese spy balloon??!!!🤯 America has become corrupted on so many levels. We are not in any position to claim the high ground when it comes to corruption,” said another.

“We used to ignore Chinese spy balloons when Trump was president and Ratcliffe was Director of National Intelligence. Republicans didn’t think it was a big deal when their idiots were in charge,” the third one said.