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US says China balloon could collect intelligence signals

The balloon that was shot down by the US government is suspected to be part of a fleet of surveillance balloons used to surveil dozens of countries across 5 continents.

Reuters

The United States publicly refuted China's narrative that the aircraft was a weather balloon that was blown off course.

The China balloon shot down by the US was equipped to detect and collect intelligence signals as part of a huge, military-linked aerial surveillance program that targeted more than 40 countries, the Biden administration said, citing imagery from American U-2 spy planes.

A fleet of balloons operates under the direction of the People's Liberation Army and is used specifically for spying, outfitted with high-tech equipment designed to gather sensitive information from targets across the globe, the US said.

Similar balloons have sailed over five continents, according to the administration.

A statement from a senior State Department official offered the most detail to date linking China’s military to the balloon that was shot down by the US last weekend over the Atlantic Ocean.

The public details outlining the program's scope and capabilities were meant to refute China’s persistent denials that the balloon was used for spying, including a claim Thursday that US accusations about the balloon amount to “information warfare".

On Capitol Hill, the House voted unanimously to condemn China for a “brazen violation” of US sovereignty and efforts to “deceive the international community through false claims about its intelligence collection campaigns".

Republicans have criticised President Joe Biden for not acting sooner to down the balloon, but both parties' lawmakers came together on the vote, 419-0.

In Beijing, before the US offered its new information, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning repeated her nation's insistence that 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,” Mao said. The latest accusations, she said, “may be part of the US side’s information warfare against China".

Underscoring the tensions, China’s defense minister refused to take a phone call from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to discuss the balloon issue on Saturday, the Pentagon said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a planned weekend trip to Beijing.