To me that whole story looks suspicious, why would china send spying balloons over there? in a strategic region full of lithium mines, you wouldn't want to scare your potential future partners

So it's probably fake balloons in an attempt to create defiance against China, who would do that?

The US is interested in that region: https://www.csis.org/analysis/south-americas-lithium-triangl...

So maybe there is some shady things going on

https://www.reuters.com/world/china-balloon-soaring-over-us-...

Yeah that's very suspicious