The United States (US) believes that the Chinese spy balloon shot down in North American airspace in early February was able to capture images, signals and intelligence data from various military bases in the country, forwarding them in real time to Beijing.
the information is advanced by CNN International, which cites a source close to the process and according to which Washington says it does not know if the Chinese government had the capacity to delete the data from the balloon as it received it. Thus, the Americans have doubts about the totality of the information collected by the team.
This uncertainty, advances the same source, did not raise large waves because the capture capacity of the balloon will be similar to that of the Chinese satellites that pass, in orbit, over these same bases. Also, because the balloon’s trajectory was known, the United States would have been able to “censor” some of the signals before they were picked up.
The FBI is still examining the globe, but the Americans will have been able to gather information about its operation, including the algorithms used in its software, power supply, and design.
The balloon in question was shot down on February 4 by the US Air Force over the Atlantic coast of North Carolina and South Carolina.
The Chinese government has always maintained the position that the presence of the balloon over US territory was due to an accident, claiming that it was a civilian investigation device.
Source: TSF
