This is GPS, the Global Public Square. Welcome to all of you in the United States and around the world.

I'm Furiz Zakaria, coming to you from New York.

We'll begin today's program with Monday's powerful earthquake.

The devastation and destruction it has caused and the politics that are now at play.

Also, the China balloon crisis. What is the fall on?

I'll talk about all that and more with David Miller band and Richard Haas.

Also, who is really fighting on the front lines for Russia in Ukraine?

We will introduce you to the shadowy group whose mercenaries are a surprisingly big part of Russia's war effort.

Everything we need to know about the Wagner unit.

And Kim Jong-un's Hermit Kingdom launched over 90 missiles last year, including an astonishing 23 in one single day.

An expert will tell us why America's lack of attention to North Korea's growing nuclear threat is a clear danger.

But first, here's my take.

In a state of the Union address, President Biden alluded to the Chinese spy balloon incident in a single line, which suggested an effort to contain the spillover from that episode.

As we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country and we did.

For its part, the Beijing government also seems to have tried to downplay it, expressing regret initially and using its censorship of media and social media,

not to fan the flames of Chinese nationalism, but rather tamp them down.

In the last such crisis, the Chinese government seemed to encourage anti-Americanism in its media. In 2001, an American spy plane collided with the Chinese jet fighter, killing the Chinese pilot and forcing the American plane to land at Hainan Island, where Chinese authorities took the crew into custody.

After 11-10 days, the United States issued a letter of regret, which the Chinese characterized as an apology, Beijing then released the Americans.

It is difficult to imagine an incident like that one, getting resolved so quickly and easily today.

We're watching something almost unique in history, a growing geopolitical rivalry between two nations that are also deeply interconnected economically.

In the wake of the suspected spy balloon, this week brought news that US-China trade-in goods hit an all-time high of $690 billion, surpassing the previous record set in 2018 before the COVID pandemic.

That number seems especially remarkable when you consider that it was achieved despite the tariffs that Donald Trump placed on many Chinese goods and those that China placed on US goods in response.

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