Last week, Americans looked toward the sky … they were scanning for a 200-foot-tall white orb that traversed the entire country in less than two weeks. It stalked the Midwest and floated into the Southeast like an all-seeing eye.

It was a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon or spy balloon, according to the Pentagon, and on the afternoon of Feb. 4, an F-22 Raptor ripped across the blue expanse and punched a Sidewinder missile through its side.

The popping of the balloon came on the heels of a leaked memo from an Air Force four-star general predicting a physical conflict between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China starting as early as the next two years. At the time, it was rebuffed by critics as hyperbolic -- and many still consider it so.

But the balloon, the leaked memo, and an increasingly tense intelligence atmosphere between the U.S. and China raised a question in the last two weeks that in actuality has been looming for decades.

Is America going to war with China? And if so, what would it look like and when will it happen?

Appearing in this episode: Gen. Mike Minihan, Nicholas Eftimiades, Drew Lawrence, KTLA Eye Witness Video, Thomas Novelly, Allison P. Erickson, Rebecca Kheel