The large Chinese spy balloon that floated over half the U.S. before being shot down by a fighters jet in February was reportedly made in part with off-the-shelf U.S. equipment.
It’s unclear if materials used to make the balloon were acquired legally, according to ABC News, which is a cause for concern since the U.S. restricts what can be sold to certain countries. The nature of the American-made materials found in the balloon is also not clear.
U.S. officials said in February the balloon contained technology that would allow it to intercept secret communications. However, ABC News reports that the object doesn’t appear to have transmitted data it observed during its flight.
The balloon drifted over the U.S. on Jan. 28, slowly making its way east before an F-22 took it down with a sidewinder missile off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4. Its remains were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean in a joint effort by the Navy, Coast Guard and FBI, and were then transported to the latter’s headquarters in Virginia.
Military aircraft tracked and studied the balloon as it made its way across the country. Assistant defense secretary for the Indo-Pacific region Jedidiah Royal said intelligence officers have “some very good guesses” on what the balloon was surveilling.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing Monday, where the pair agreed on a “need to stabilize” relations between the U.S. and China.
President Joe Biden raised eyebrows last week by calling Xi “a dictator” facing unenviable economic troubles. China’s foreign ministry condemned that characterization as “absurd” and called Biden’s verbiage “a blatant political provocation.”
-------
