'China is our enemy': GOP lawmaker shoots down Chinese spy balloon in new ad
A Republican congressman released a new advertisement showing him shooting a Chinese spy balloon out of the sky.
Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., is running for a second full term in the House of Representatives, having first won a special election in 2022 to succeed indicted Rep. Jeff Fortenberry.
The 30-second video clip emphasizes Flood’s record as a China hawk by using comments from the congressman himself, while emphasizing China’s imminent threat with a Chinese flag-covered balloon floating across the screen.
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"China is our enemy. Plain and simple. The Chinese Communist Party hacks our computers, buys up land near military bases, and spies on our armed forces, even here in Nebraska," Flood says in the ad.
"That’s why I’m fighting to keep Chinese technology off our cell towers, stop China from buying Nebraska farmland, and protect Americans from Chinese spying and cyberattacks."
Toward the end of the video, Flood promises to do "whatever it takes" to defend Nebraska while cocking a pistol and blowing the balloon to smithereens.
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It’s a callback to when a suspected Chinese spy balloon entered U.S. airspace and subsequently floated across multiple states, at a level low enough to be seen with the naked eye, before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina after several days.
Republicans used the incident as evidence of their criticism that President Biden has not been tough enough on China, arguing that the surveillance device was sent by the Chinese military with little fear of U.S. reprisal.
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Beijing has denied that the balloon was a spying tool.
It comes after new revelations of a swarm of unidentified drones over a sensitive military site in Virginia caused alarm.
U.S. officials were stumped in December last year when the unidentified aircraft flew over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia for more than two weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.