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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Julia Carrie Wong

Chinese spy balloon seen above Hawaii and Florida in 2019, report says

sailors on a boat with a large piece of white material
Sailors recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Sunday. Photograph: US navy/Zuma Press Wire Service/REX/Shutterstock

A Chinese spy balloon “drifted past Hawaii and across Florida” as it “circumnavigated the globe” in 2019, four years before the American military shot down another one this past weekend, according to a US air force intelligence report reviewed by CNN.

China “launched and controlled” the high-altitude balloon, which was “capable of operating at “65,000ft to 328,000ft and for months at a time”, in 2019, according to the report seen by CNN. The report did not make clear when the US became aware of the 2019 balloon.

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