Originally Posted by
Captain Dart
I spent 28 years as an airline jock flying into and over China on a regular basis. Observations:
Convoluted air routes to avoid their military bases (not that you could see much as the country is 99% smog).
Sometimes threatening or actually having to declare an emergency in order to get clearance to deviate to avoid thunderstorms.
Narrow, crowded corridors for civvies to fly in with the military controlling the rest of their airspace.
A general impression of a paranoid regime.
My point? I can imagine the squealing from the ChiComms if a huge American ‘weather balloon’ ever overflew their neck of the woods.
Exactly, and I am reminded that in the 2001 Hainan Island incident, they literally crashed a fighter into an EP-3E intelligence asset, that wasn't even over Chinese air space, such was their paranoia.