I don’t understand what’s so interesting about a spy balloon anyway. Doesn’t China already have satellites in orbit able to take high resolution pictures anywhere in the country anyway?
about the balloons themselves? Nothing. But how the US responds, how much they tolerate, that's all important signals. A lot of geopolitical competition is about poking and seeing what you can get away with.
A balloon 60k+ feet above my house? Yes no big deal. Not like they will see anything better than they could from the public road, or what's on google maps.