Meh, the balloon stuff was pretty low-grade, silly stuff, with a lot of posturing on both sides, I’m not too worried about China not picking up on that stuff.

They did pick up Milley’s calls when trump was engaging in some serious sabre rattling, so still consider that red line to be up and running if/when actually necessary. Not clear if this will hold up long term, but all the incentives favour maintaining this kind of fail safe line of communication.