hello and welcome. coming to you live from studio 4 at the cnn center in atlanta, i m michael holmes. appreciate your company. coming up on cnn newsroom i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down on wednesday as soon as possible. the u.s. has shot down a suspected chinese spy balloon after it traveled across america for days. recovery efforts now under way. china says the balloon entered u.s. air space by accident, heightening already tense relations between washington and beijing. live in hong kong with the latest from there. it s not the only one. the pentagon says a second balloon is flying over latin america. a report ahead. live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with michael holmes. we br to show you the dramatic moment a u.s. sidewinder missile took out the suspected chinese spy balloon that has caused so much havoc this week. the balloon was so high up, nearly 12 miles or 20 kilometers, that it took a few seconds for the shockwave to reach the grou
Shot down over the u.s. a lot more questions about this. and you know, michael, it brings another question. if, as the americans have said, this balloon had solar panels and had equipment on it the length of three buses, why would china be sending such equipment, such technology, flying around the world and not have a way to reclaim it? it would just seem to be throwing away resources, throwing away money. so many more questions that perhaps we ll get an answer from chinese government officials on monday when they do their routine briefings. yeah. appreciate the update, ivan watson in hong kong. military analyst malcolm davis is the senior analyst at the australian strategic policy institute. he joins me now from canberra. good to see you. what do you make of china s story of a civilian commercial