Joe SłowikOK, for all the "LOL #ChineseBalloon" discussion and jokes, there's some serious aspects to how this all played out, ending off the coast of South Carolina. Bringing down the balloon over US territory sets up an interesting arguments for taking down things flying over (and obviously snooping on) a country, which the US does all the time... but also, waiting for the object to go over water to then take it down means this was probably PRETTY DAMN CLOSE to shore as (again) US is VERY PROTECTIVE of freedom of navigation (including for flights) such as all those fun EP-3/RC-135 flights in WestPac...
The first major "international incident" right before #GWOT was the #HainanIsland event in Spring 2001 - PRC made out like bandits from this, but the action (SIGINT missions over international waters close to/around areas of military significance) continue to this day.... Taking that balloon out 15+ miles from the coast of US would've been VERY INTERESTING.
https://stationhypo.com/2022/04/01/remembering-the-hainan-island-incident-2/