China Balloon Row: The Chinese balloon shot down by the United States was equipped to detect and collect intelligence signals as part of a vast, military-linked aerial surveillance program that targeted more than 40 countries. The Biden administration announced on Thursday (February 9), citing imagery. American U-2 spy plane.
The US said a fleet of balloons operated under the direction of the People’s Liberation Army and used exclusively for espionage were equipped with high-tech equipment designed to collect sensitive information from targets around the world. Is. According to the administration, similar balloons have flown across five continents.
A statement by a senior State Department official gave the most information to date linking China’s military to the balloon that the US shot down over the Atlantic Ocean last weekend. The public details outlining the program’s scope and capabilities were meant to contradict China’s consistent denials that the balloons were used for espionage, including Thursday’s claim that the US was waging “information warfare” about the balloons. accuses.
What President Biden says:
President Joe Biden defended the US action. And, asked in an interview with Spanish-language Telemundo Noticias whether the balloon episode represented a major security breach, he said no.
“Look, the total amount of intelligence gathering that is being done by every country around the world is enormous,” he said. “Anyway, it’s not a major violation. I mean, look… it’s a violation of international law. It’s our airspace. And once it’s in our space, we can do whatever we want with it.” can do.”
On Capitol Hill, the House voted unanimously to condemn China for its “brazen violations” of US sovereignty and its efforts to “deceive the international community through false claims about its intelligence collection operations”. Republicans criticized Biden for not acting sooner to shoot down the balloon, but lawmakers from both parties came together on a vote of 419-0.
In Beijing, before the US offered its new information, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning reiterated his country’s insistence that the large unmanned balloon was a civilian meteorological aeroplane that had flown by and that the US had destroyed it. was “exaggerated” by the knockdown.
“It is irresponsible,” Mao said. The latest allegations, she said, “could be part of the US side’s information war against China.”
Underscoring the tensions, China’s defense minister refused to take a phone call from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday to discuss the balloon issue, the Pentagon said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a planned weekend trip to Beijing.
The US categorically denied China’s version of events, saying that imagery of the balloon collected by US U-2 spy planes crossing the country showed that it carried several antennas designed to upload sensitive data. and was “capable of collecting signals intelligence” with other equipment. Information and solar panels to power them.
Jedediah Royal, the US assistant secretary of defense for the Indo-Pacific, told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that the military has “some pretty good guesses” about what intelligence China is seeking. More details were expected to be provided in a classified setting.
Senior FBI officials told reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the bureau that only a few pieces of the balloon had arrived for testing at the FBI’s Quantico, Virginia lab. So far, investigators have parts of the balloon canopy, wiring, and what one official called “a very small amount of electronics.” The official said that “it was too early for us to assess what the intent was and how the device was functioning.”
Learn more about China Balloon Matter:
Balloon recovery efforts were temporarily suspended on Thursday due to high seas, according to two US officials. He said some balloon debris remained intact on the seabed and divers had recovered equipment of potentially high value over the past day and a half. Another official said some of the seized equipment parts had English writing or markings but it was not clear whether they were US parts or from another English-speaking country. The official said that there was no visible mark on the more technical components recovered.
According to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the collection process, most of the debris is concentrated in two distinct sections of the field of 15 soccer fields and 15 fields.
The State Department official, providing details to reporters by email on condition of anonymity, said analysis of the balloon’s wreckage was “inconsistent” with China’s explanation that it was a weather balloon that went off course. The official said the US is reaching out to countries that have also been targeted.
Citing an official PLA procurement portal as evidence, the official said the US is confident that the manufacturer of the balloon shot down on Saturday “has direct links with China’s military and is an approved seller of the military”.
State Department spokesman Ned Price would not identify other countries the US says have also been targeted. Nor will he explain how the US knows Chinese incursions into the territory of those countries, doing so could compromise intelligence sources and methods.
The release of the new information was part of a coordinated administration response, with several officials appearing before congressional committees to face questions about the balloon.
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said that officials had “taken all necessary steps to protect sensitive information” and were able to study and examine the balloon and its equipment.
“We will continue to respond to threats posed by the PRC with determination and resolve,” Sharman said, referring to the People’s Republic of China. “We will make it clear to the PRC that infringement of our sovereignty and the sovereignty of other countries is unacceptable.”
In a separate Senate subcommittee hearing, lawmakers repeatedly pressed administration officials, including Pentagon military leaders, on why the balloons were not dropped in sparsely populated areas of Alaska. And he questioned whether allowing the balloons to cross such a large area sets a precedent for future espionage efforts by China and others.
“It defies belief that there was never a single opportunity to safely shoot down this spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. “By the administration’s logic we would allow the Chinese to fly surveillance balloons over the Pentagon or other sensitive sites and populated areas.”
Melissa Dalton, assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Defense, and Lt. Gen. Doug Sims, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US wanted to avoid any injuries or deaths from the debris field if the balloon was shot down over Alaska. . ,
And he said that shooting it over the icy, icy waters in that area would have made it more difficult and dangerous to recover fragments for further analysis.
Sims said, “We thought before we shot. In the first prosecution of its kind in 2014, the Obama administration’s Justice Department indicted five accused PLA hackers of breaking into the computer networks of major US corporations in an attempt to steal trade secrets.
(with AP inputs)
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