The Chinese balloon that flew over the United States last week was equipped to detect and collect intelligence signals as part of a military aerial surveillance program targeting more than 40 countries, the US government said.
Citing images of US U-2 spy planes, the government, in statements Thursday to the Associated Press agency, specified that a fleet of balloons operates under the direction of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, and is used for espionage, with equipment designed to collect information from targets around the world, having similar balloons that have already passed through the five continents.
This information about the equipment of the Chinese balloon was released hours later, also a source from the State Department, quoted by the AFP agency, under anonymity, revealing that the images collected by the US military aircraft showed that the balloon was equipped with tools espionage and not the weather.
China argued that it was a “civilian flying device used for research purposes, mainly meteorological”.
But the incident created a diplomatic rift that prompted US Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken to postpone a rare visit to China, while Beijing on Saturday rebuffed a call from Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin shortly after the Americans will shoot down the globe.
Source: TSF
