The controversy surrounding the Chinese spy balloon that flew across the United States in February of this year refuses to die down.
According to NBC News, the balloon collected information from various US military locations and immediately transmitted it to Beijing. Beijing had claimed that the balloon was a weather ship that had accidentally gotten out of control and invaded US airspace at the moment. On February 4, US President Joe Biden gave the command to shoot down the enormous Chinese spy balloon near the east coast. In response to the event, the Chinese foreign ministry expressed its outrage and threatened consequences if America continued to use force against its unmanned civilian airship.
t said, “The Chinese side has repeatedly informed the US side after verification that the airship is for civilian use and entered the US due to force majeure – it was completely an accident.”
The spy balloon could send the data it gathered back to Beijing in real-time
According to the NBC story, the high-altitude balloon, which was under the control of Beijing, made several passes over some of the locations before it was shot down. According to NBC, which cited two current senior US officials and one former top administration official, it occasionally flew in a figure-eight formation.
The spy balloon could send the data it gathered back to Beijing in real-time. The officials were quoted by NBC as saying,
The NBC report says that the high-altitude balloon, controlled by Beijing, made multiple passes over some of the sites before it was shot down. It flew at times in a figure-eight formation, NBC said, citing two current senior US officials and one former senior administration official.
The officials told NBC that the spy balloon could transmit the information it collected back to Beijing in real-time.
“The intelligence China collected was mostly from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or include communications from base personnel, rather than images”.
There have been no official comments on the claim from either the US or China. Although the US warned China against using spy balloons over US soil, it did not believe this would have a significant effect on China’s national security.
