The Chinese balloon that traversed the US was capable of collecting communications signals and was part of a military-led spy program that spanned more than 40 countries, Biden administration officials said.
(Bloomberg) — The Chinese balloon that traversed the US was capable of collecting communications signals and was part of a military-led spy program that spanned more than 40 countries, Biden administration officials said.
The Biden administration presented the new evidence in a State Department fact sheet on the balloon’s capabilities and in open hearings and closed briefings on Capitol Hill Thursday, as they sought to counter China’s insistence that it was a harmless weather-monitoring device that blew off course.
To make the case, the administration offered rarely disclosed details, including that high-resolution imagery provided by U-2 spy planes flying past the balloon revealed an array of surveillance equipment. That equipment could collect and geo-locate communications, and a solar array gave enough power to operate multiple collection sensors, officials said.
“This irresponsible act put on full display what we’ve long recognized as the PRC has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad,” Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told lawmakers, referring to China’s formal name, the People’s Republic of China.
US officials are now trying to expose and counter what they see as broader Chinese spying efforts alongside allies. They are also looking at taking action against Chinese entities linked to the intelligence-gathering effort after identifying a Chinese balloon manufacturer that sells products to the Chinese military, according to the administration.
In a finding that raises new questions about the provenance of the balloon’s components, administration officials told lawmakers that the balloon had western-made components with English-language writing on them, people familiar with the matter said.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the writing was discovered before the balloon was shot down Saturday or found in the wreckage afterward. Recovery operations for the balloon’s payload continued.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is combing through the debris, but FBI officials who briefed reporters on Thursday said the review is in its early stages and agents haven’t yet seen the balloon’s main payload.
China’s Response
The new details released on Thursday, including the contention that the device was part of a broader military-directed fleet, will add to the strain on US-China relations. The Biden administration said the manufacturer of the balloon, which it didn’t name, had a direct relationship with the People’s Liberation Army.
China refused a requested phone call between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart, Defense Minister Wei Fenghe, right after the balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4, according to the Pentagon.
“Over the last several months, the PLA has continued to view the mil-mil relationship as something that they can turn on and off to express displeasure with other things that are happening,” Assistant Secretary of Defense Ely Ratner told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday. “We think that’s really dangerous. We continue to have an outstretched hand.”
China’s Ministry of Defense said Thursday it declined to talk with the US over the balloon because “the use of force violates international practice and sets a bad precedent,” according to a statement from spokesman Tan Kefei. “The US hasn’t created a proper atmosphere for dialogue,” he added, calling the downing of what China considers a civilian balloon “irresponsible.”
The disclosure of the balloon last week led to the postponement of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s long-planned trip to China as part of an effort to normalize ties between the world’s two largest economies.
US officials have said they took measures to nullify the balloon’s intelligence-gathering capacity as it traversed the continental US, but the new assertion that it was capable of actively gathering sensitive communications could fuel further Republican criticism that the Biden administration should have acted sooner to shoot down the balloon instead of waiting for it to cross the country so that it could be downed over water.
Congressional Reaction
The House of Representatives unanimously voted to condemn China for the balloon flight even as lawmakers continued to split, largely along partisan lines, about whether the administration had acted properly.
After an administration briefing for House members, Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, said, “They answered all the questions that we had. And I think that the administration made the right decision about shooting it down and when they chose to shoot it down. I think it would have posed a real risk to people on the ground.”
But Republican Susan Collins of Maine told a Senate hearing that “it defies belief that there was not a single opportunity to safely shoot down this spy balloon” as it crossed the country. “By the administration’s logic, we would allow the Chinese to fly a surveillance balloon over the Pentagon.”
Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana, where the balloon’s presence first became public, said it should have been shot down when it initially passed over Alaska. “I don’t want a damn balloon going over the United States,” he said.
Lieutenant General Douglas Sims, director of operations for the Joint Staff, responded that over Alaska, as elsewhere, the concern was for “near zero probability of collateral damage” on the ground. Melissa Dalton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, added that salvage operations to probe the balloon’s capabilities would have been difficult and “very dangerous” in the deep and icy waters off of Alaska.
–With assistance from Emily Wilkins, Roxana Tiron and Tony Capaccio.
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