There's absolutely some theatre going on. The only reason we know about the ones over Alaska and Yukon is that they told us. As several articles are noting, t

There's absolutely some theatre going on. The only reason we know about the ones over Alaska and Yukon is that they told us. As several articles are noting, the US has recorded ~10 such balloons over the last year. None of which we heard about. Were they shot down without us knowing? Were they allowed to fly over without issue? Either way, why the change with the public statements now being made? (Did they drop the ball with all those ones we never heard about? What about in previous years? How long has this been happening?) The best hypothesis I can come up with is that when Americans on the ground saw the first balloon, the administration felt political pressure to act. Now that the American public, and the international community, is broadly supportive of the USA shooting them down, the US feels empowered to make a public statement, with China's leaders as the intended primary recipient, but also playing to a domestic audience to some degree.