The Chinese balloon shot down over the United States was part of a huge, military-linked aerial spy scheme targeting more than 40 countries, according to the US government.
The Biden administration said the balloon was equipped to collect intelligence signals and was part of a fleet of balloons controlled by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army for spying.
A statement from a senior State Department official offered the most detail to date linking China’s military to the balloon shot down last weekend over the Atlantic Ocean.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning repeated her nation’s insistence the large unmanned balloon was a civilian meteorological airship that had blown off course and that the US had “overreacted” by shooting it down.
“It is irresponsible,” Ms Mao said. The latest accusations, she said, “may be part of the US side’s information warfare against China.”
The Pentagon said China’s defence minister refused to take a phone call from Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to discuss the balloon on Saturday and China has not answered questions as to what government department or company the balloon belonged to, or how it planned to follow up on a pledge to take further action over the matter.
The US said imagery collected by American U-2 spy planes as the balloon crossed the country showed it was “capable of conducting signals intelligence collection” with multiple antennas and other equipment designed to upload sensitive information and solar panels to power them.
Jedidiah Royal, the US assistant defenc0e secretary for the Indo-Pacific, told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee the military has “some very good guesses” about what intelligence China was seeking.
The State Department official said analysis of the balloon debris was “inconsistent” with China’s explanation it was a weather balloon that went off course.
They said the US was confident the manufacturer of the balloon has “a direct relationship with China’s military.
