Collecting intelligence with things like satellites and flying planes in international waters is 100% legal and allowed.
Doing it by violating airspace with balloons is not. Doing it with human espionage is not. So it isn't hypocritical at all to be outraged by the latter but not the former.
What happened here is that this big news balloon wasn't the 1st, but it was a major escalation in size and depth of penetration. Previously China "tested the waters" using their typical salami slicing tactics and tried only minor, brief incursions. When they got away with that, someone over in the CCP decided to escalate and try to overfly the US with a huge one.
It backfired and blew up in their faces in the US and international press, and the CCP's response to their failure has been laughable. They've been falling all over themselves changing their tack day to day, contradicting themselves, and generally making a display of their incompetence.
Collecting intelligence with things like satellites and flying planes in international waters is 100% legal and allowed.
Doing it by violating airspace with balloons is not. Doing it with human espionage is not. So it isn't hypocritical at all to be outraged by the latter but not the former.
What happened here is that this big news balloon wasn't the 1st, but it was a major escalation in size and depth of penetration. Previously China "tested the waters" using their typical salami slicing tactics and tried only minor, brief incursions. When they got away with that, someone over in the CCP decided to escalate and try to overfly the US with a huge one.
It backfired and blew up in their faces in the US and international press, and the CCP's response to their failure has been laughable. They've been falling all over themselves changing their tack day to day, contradicting themselves, and generally making a display of their incompetence.