High-altitude surveillance balloons, similar to the one shot down over the Atlantic Ocean, targeted more than 40 countries, the Biden administration said Thursday.
WASHINGTON — China’s military is likely behind a huge aerial spy program that has targeted more than 40 countries on five continents with high-altitude surveillance balloons similar tothe Atlantic coast last weekend, the Biden administration said Thursday.
Navy sailors recover China's high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Sunday, in this image provided by the U.S. Navy.In Beijing, before the U.S. offered new information, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning repeated his nation’s insistence that the large unmanned balloon was a civilian meteorological airship that had blown off course and that the U.S. had “overreacted” by shooting it down.
The U.S. official said imagery of the balloon collected by American U-2 spy planes as it crossed the country showed that 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. The official provided details to reporters by email on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the matter, which had already forced the cancellation of a planned visit to China earlier this week by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.The official said the U.S. has confidence that the manufacturer of the balloon shot down on Saturday has “a direct relationship with China’s military and is an approved vendor of the” army.
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