[demodifier]

Regarding the last point of US putting balloons over China, that page has the following two paragraphs:

"Worldwide, there are about 1,300 upper-air stations. Observations are made by the NWS at 92 stations - 69 in the conterminous United States, 13 in Alaska, nine in the Pacific, and one in Puerto Rico.

NWS supports the operation of 10 other stations in the Caribbean. Through international agreements data are exchanged between countries worldwide."

This seems to suggest that NWS does not operate those over China but the map simply shows all the balloon weather stations that are part of this system.

[georgeg23]

Why would there be stations there if the balloons aren't flying over China?