[maxerickson]

The risk of letting it sit up there is ~0.

It's like a fly sitting on the windshield of your car parked in the driveway or something. It's there, it might be annoying if you think about it, but it isn't actually doing any meaningful harm.

[bentobean]

If so, then why did China go to the trouble in the first place?

[maxerickson]

I dunno, why did they? I think if you are concerned about it and I'm not, you are probably the one that needs to explain.

Maybe they are planning to drop an insignificant number of small munitions on random locations in the US or something.

[amw]

I haven't yet seen a compelling reason to think it is either Chinese or an espionage craft anyway,other than news reporting "the Pentagon sure thinks so"

[amw]

Update since i posted: chinese foreign ministry has confirmed, says it's for scientific purposes

[TurkishPoptart]

"Letting it sit", the "it" being what they're calling a "surveillance" balloon, seems absurd. If we have an ongoing MITM attack, we need to stop the attack, not simply observe it like idiots.