Waltz: Chinese Spy Balloon ‘a Sputnik Moment’

During an interview on Newsmax TV on Friday, Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) stated that the Chinese spy balloon incident needs to be “a Sputnik moment” for the United States.

Waltz stated, “I think a potential silver lining from this spy balloon incident is I’m hoping it’s a Sputnik moment for American society and the government in Washington, D.C. that we need — we absolutely need a wake-up call. This is the most massive spying operation that any adversary has undertaken against the United States and influence operation in American history. We are under assault from Chinese spying. It’s in our research labs. It’s in our universities. It’s — they’re influencing and buying up sports, Wall Street, academia, pouring billions into college endowment funds — the University of Pennsylvania Biden Center being just one of them. And now, as we do our own investigation — and we’re asking the Pentagon to do theirs — we’re seeing that Chinese-backed private equity [is] buying up military schools and private schools and boarding schools all over the United States. One, it gives them a platform to influence our kids on top of what they’re already doing with TikTok. And then number two, they can send their elites to these schools. So, we’ve just got to have a wake-up call across the board. And again, the sad thing is, we’re paying for it. This is our money that is fueling their military build-up and their spying operation.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett