Eli5 Why would the Chinese use a spy balloon?

We don't hear about all the stuff the US does like this. It is probably a response to some tit for tat political maneuvering. I mean there was never a Soviet U-2 plane flying over the States. Maybe this is just them showing it is possible.

The cold war became a battle of economies. Now Russia has the same GDP as Texas, just Texas. China on the other hand is winning the future when it comes to economics. Just like the backwardness of Russia caused the oligarchy, the same is happening in the US with the corrupt consolidation of wealth at the expense of everything else. Over 60% of the country is one paycheck away from disaster, while there are more than 730 parasitic billionaires. The corruption is irreversible. Just the price of housing alone will dictate the birth rate. The crashing birth rate will be the end of western hegemony.

The Chinese missions to the moon, building a space station, leading in science, education, growth, and investing in people is all a shot across the bow marking the end of this era. The balloons are just another angle of this same shot.

/r/explainlikeimfive Thread