There has been many documented incidents of China doing this crap for several years, occasionally even red handed (a Karen calling in a Chinese guy near Norfolk naval yard comes to mind). It's always a Chinese student, with a commercial drone, and quasi-plausible deniability. These are new. Then again, we had all the drones in eastern Colorado not that long ago (but maybe that was a DARPA project or something).

A problem we have, of sorts, is that drones are not yet considered as per se threats. Ordinarily the US Gov can't proactively destroy them on sight around sensitive areas unless they do something that is "threatening", or could potentially threatening to e.g. aviation.