Chinese spy balloon ‘programmed for intelligence collection’, confirms White House
After shooting down the Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on February 4, the United States shot down three more unidentified flying objects, two in US airspace and one in Canadian airspace.
PremiumWhite House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed that the Chinese spy balloon is linked to intelligence collection.
While addressing a press conference, Kirby said, “China has a high-altitude balloon program for intelligence collection that's connected to the People's Liberation Army."
Further adding he said that the Chinese spy balloon program targeted the United States' "closest allies and partners," but provided "limited additive" intelligence collection capabilities.
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"We assess at this time these balloons have provided limited additive capabilities to the PRC's other intelligence platforms used over the United States," Kirby said at the White House briefing.
"We know that these PRC surveillance balloons have crossed over dozens of countries including some of our allies and partners. We assessed that at this time these balloons have provided limited value to PRC's other intelligence platforms but could become more valuable in future," added Kirby.
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He also confirmed that the US does not yet know who owns the recently shot-down unidentified objects.
Kirby also said that the same spy balloon programme was in operation during Donald Trump's Presidency, but his administration was not able to detect them like the Biden administration.
"It was operating during the previous administration but they did not detect it. We detected it. We tracked it," said the US NSC spokesperson while taking credit for finding the spy balloon.
Also Read: US sanctions six Chinese firms connected to balloon uproar
Earlier on 7 February, The Washington Post reported, "The surveillance balloon project has been going on for several years, run out of Hainan province off China’s south coast. It has collected information on military assets and areas of strategic interest to China in countries like Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan, and the Philippines".
Speaking of any other indicators, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that "There is no, again, no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns."
Also Read: Chinese ‘spy’ balloon saga: What was it trying to collect from US?
After shooting down the Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on February 4, the United States shot down three more unidentified flying objects, two in US airspace and one in Canadian airspace.
Kirby said that the three new objects were much smaller than the Chinese spy balloon and that the United States was still not sure what they might be.
"There is no question in our minds that that system was designed to surveil, that it was an intelligence asset," Kirby said of the Chinese spy balloon.
"We knew exactly what that thing was. These other three didn't have propulsion, they weren't being maneuvered, they were basically being driven by the wind. We don't know for sure whether they had a surveillance aspect to them but we can't rule it out."
Kirby said that the United States' apparent difficulty in tracking all four objects was owed to the nature of how radar is typically used and that the nation was enhancing its capabilities based on newly gathered intelligence.
"Slow-moving objects at high altitude with a small radar cross section are difficult to detect on radar, even objects as large as the Chinese spy balloon," Kirby said.
China too had said that since the start of 2022, US had flown high-altitude balloons through its airspace more than 10 times, adding fuel to an escalating diplomatic standoff between the countries that has derailed efforts to reset relations.
On this Kirby rejected the accusation saying, "We are not flying surveillance balloons over China. I am not aware of any other craft that we are flying over into Chinese airspace."
He defended the decision to shoot down the three most recent objects despite the government not knowing what they were because they potentially posed a threat to civilian air traffic as they were flying at a similar altitude to many planes
The isolated and harsh conditions in the places they were shot down are hampering efforts to find debris to analyze, with the most recent of them likely in deep water in Lake Huron.
(With inputs from ANI)
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