Parsing what the U.S. military actually said, relevant points include: - The balloon was discovered several days ago and has been tracked continuously since th

Parsing what the U.S. military actually said, relevant points include: - The balloon was discovered several days ago and has been tracked continuously since then (likely well prior to when it was over the U.S., hence knowing where it's from). - Similar balloons from China have been observed over the U.S. before. The only difference with this one is that it's taking longer to transit. - The balloon represents no threat to aviation and the U.S. military has assessed it does not offer meaningful intelligence advantages over low earth orbit satellites already deployed by China.