The alleged Chinese spy balloon that flew over the U.S. was capable of collecting communications signals and was part of a broader People’s Liberation Army intelligence-gathering effort that spanned more than 40 countries, a State Department official said Thursday.
High-resolution imagery provided by U-2 spy planes that flew past the balloon revealed an array of surveillance equipment that was inconsistent with Beijing’s claim that the balloon was a weather device blown off course, the official said in a statement provided on condition of anonymity.
The statement, released before State and Defense Department officials were set to testify in hearings and briefings to Congress on Thursday, marks the fullest accounting yet for the Biden administration’s insistence over the course of a week-long drama that the balloon was meant to spy on the U.S.
