Chinese have to do something to save face. US subs can sneak up close to the Chinese coast and intelligence gather without the Chinese being any the wiser. That is the missing context here. Recall that incident of the US sub that hit something and had to limp back a while ago.
Chinese are far behind in the SIGINT game. Yet, the media makes it look like it's the Americans on the backfoot
So the Americans have been sneaking up on them for ages with subs maybe one time too many and China decided to respond with balloons which are much cheaper and over their heads in a blatant manner.
The message to the US is to stop spying on China. The Americans must have pulled off something big recently, hehe. Or more likely XJP needs to distract his people from internal problems by externalising them. The same will be done with India.
None of this going to stop, its just psychological warfare. Everything with the CCP is political. Not so much military.
This theory going around that there are hardline factions in the PLA that want to sabotage relations with the US and that XJP cannot control them is nonsense.
If it is happening to the extent that Blinken has to cancel a visit then you can be sure it's been greenlighted from the top.
We've seen the same back in 2014 when XJP is on a state visit and surprise, surprise his guys are also paying us a visit at the border at the same time?
This' rogue PLA commander' theory got floated back then too.
The PLA is not China's army like the army is for most other countries. The job of the PLA is to defend the CCP. You can be sure they don't move unless they get their orders.