The threat to our nation’s defense from Chinese spy balloons may be the least of it.
In the 19th Century, the British military confronted and defeated Chinese forces, allowing British drug dealers to reap fortunes selling addictive opium to the Chinese population. So powerful was the poppy that Chinese society, for all intents and purposes, collapsed. The destructive force of opium would ensure that the Chinese would suffer centuries of occupation, civil war, economic collapse, and the loss of empire.
The Chinese have never forgotten their humiliation by Western forces. Nor have they forgotten the role of illicit drugs in destroying a once mighty kingdom.
