The United States has confirmed that Chinese spy balloons have been collecting intelligence in the airspace over the United States. We received information from a reliable source that these balloons are collecting information about our military and civilian activity.
The balloon, which is said to be the size of three buses, entered the US on January 28 and made multiple passes over the sites. It transmitted information back to Beijing in real-time, with most of the intelligence collected from electronic signals rather than images.
How did the Chinese spy balloons collect the information?
In late January, a suspected Chinese spy balloon was spotted flying over American airspace. It was reportedly the size of three buses.
China was able to control the balloon so that it was able to make multiple passes over some of the sites, and then transmit the information it collected back to Beijing in real time.
China’s intelligence was largely gathered from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or include communications from base personnel. This report claims that this is an advantage for China.
The three officials said that China would have been able to gather a lot more intelligence from sensitive sites if not for the efforts of the Biden administration to move around potential targets and obscure the balloon’s ability to pick up their electronic signals.
According to three unnamed officials quoted in the report, China would have been able to collect even more sensitive information from sensitive sites if not for the efforts of the Obama administration to obscure the balloon’s ability to pick up electronic signals.
The flight of the balloon over the Malmstrom Air Force Base, which houses some of the US’s nuclear assets, has further strained our already tense bilateral relationships with China. This has led to the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, postponing his key visit to Beijing in February.
The Chinese foreign ministry has issued a statement in response to the report, stating that the balloon was not a military aircraft and was primarily used for scientific research purposes.
On February 4, the United States shot down a balloon off the coast of South Carolina, and officials were able to reconstruct it from the debris that was recovered.