US intelligence services believe the spy balloon shot down after crossing US airspace in recent weeks is part of a vast Chinese spy program. The information was provided by various official US sources who spoke anonymously to the Washington Post.
Officials heard by the US newspaper indicate that these balloons have been operating off the southern coast of China and have helped gather information on military assets from various countries, including Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines. However, North American sources assure that the balloons have already been detected in the five continents.
Since 2018, dozens of missions have been carried out with these spy balloons.
“What the Chinese have done is take incredibly old technology and basically merge it with modern observation and communication capabilities to try to get information about other nations’ militaries. It’s a huge effort,” one of the intelligence services sources said. US intelligence to the same newspaper.
After shooting down the Chinese device on Saturday, the United States has already recovered the first remains, John Kirby said, stressing that there is no intention to return it to China.
The teams deployed off the coast of South Carolina, in the southeast of the country, “recovered some debris that was on the surface of the sea,” Kirby told reporters, adding that “weather conditions” had not allowed operations to be carried out. . until now submarines to recover the rest of the material.
Although President Biden was criticized by the Republican opposition for taking too long to bring down the device, the spokesperson said that this period of time gave Americans “a tremendous opportunity to study and better understand” the globe, hoping that its the rubble will provide more information.
He also assured that the United States had “taken measures to restrict the collection capabilities [de dados] to which the balloon would have had access over sensitive military installations” in the country.
Source: TSF
