A Chinese Balloon and a Diplomatic Showdown

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2023

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On Wednesday, residents in Montana saw a mysterious object — a balloon — hovering and bobbing around in the skies. The enigma brought Americans out to squint at the heavens, caused a diplomatic visit to be canceled and opened a political debate. How did a balloon end up kindling such tension between Washington and Beijing? Guest: Edward Wong, a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tevernisi, and this is The Daily.
0:07.0	Over the past week, an object of curiosity in the sky over Montana turned into a crisis
0:18.4	between the US and China.
0:20.5	Today, my colleague Edward Wong on how a balloon could trigger such a high-stakes showdown,
0:27.2	and what it says about the relationship between the world's two superpowers that it did.
0:34.2	It's Monday, February 6th.
0:43.2	Ed, tell us the saga of this Chinese balloon.
0:54.2	Well, I think it first started on Wednesday.
1:01.2	What the heck is that?
1:02.2	President of Montana looked up in the sky and saw this mysterious object.
1:07.2	What planet is that?
1:09.2	I have no idea what it is.
1:11.2	It's been there stationary for about the last 35 minutes.
1:15.2	That's not the sun.
1:17.2	What the heck is that?
1:21.2	It was hovering, it was bobbing around.
1:24.2	It did look like a balloon, but it also looked like maybe a planet, a star.
1:29.2	And then another mysterious thing happened on Wednesday.
1:32.2	I am sitting in my driveway here in Billings, Montana.
1:37.2	There is a ground stop on our airport.
1:41.2	The authorities shut down the airport around Billings, Montana for three hours.
1:46.2	And then that really set people speculating about what exactly was going on in the sky above their heads.
	...

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