by the united states. so we got to be concerned. what is going on in china. is the people's liberation army and the intelligence services out of control? disease xi still have control of his own forces? >> peter, the significance of whatever the answers are to those two questions that the general just laid out, tell us a lot, right? they have a major impact on the geopolitical drama here. was it china and when was whatever this was launched, and the answers to those two questions are going to tell us a whole lot about what, for example, secretary of state tony blinken is going to have to do over the course of the next several weeks, how the president is going to handle this, et cetera. >> that's exactly right. look, the biden administration, after the first balloon was hoping to keep the relationship from rupturing for too long. you know, they had to cancel the meeting that secretary blinken was going to have in beijing. they had to shoot down the balloon, issue protests. there were hopes they could keep it from escalating.

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