US military shoots down Chinese spy balloon

My initial question is why did China not shoot down their own balloon before it made the trans-Pacific flight? If it really wasn't a spy balloon there would definitely be a number of ways they could have prevented it from violating our sovereign airspace.

These balloons are disposable. When they get high enough they expand too much and burst. And take themselves out of the sky automatically. (That's the intention, at least.)

Maybe a batch of balloons had slightly thicker plastic, or a slightly lower charge of gas, and didn't work as intended. It's really no big deal in the greater scheme of things.

Storm in a teacup.

Do we have any concrete proof that it's a "spy balloon" more than just speculation?

Only senior officials at the pentagon saying it is a spy balloon. [1] No idea if they would disclose how they determined that.

[1] - https://youtu.be/e4Hnb3Pqaxg?t=103 [video]

Duplicate of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34657528

oh it happened? celebs like Rob Schneider were tweeting silly things complaining about it not happening