NBC reported on Monday that despite efforts by the Biden administration to prevent it, a Chinese balloon that flew above the United States acquired information from several U.S. military locations and sent it in real-time to Beijing.
Two current senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration official verified that the Beijing-controlled high-altitude balloon flew repeatedly over certain places before being shot down on February 4 according to the news.
The three officials said that the satellite could transmit the data it collected to Beijing in real-time.
According to sources, “the majority of the information China obtained came from electronic signals, which may have been picked up by weapons systems or contained base staff’ communications.”
White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday that he could not confirm NBC’s claim, but that the United States had limited the balloon’s “capability to be able to acquire anything else.”
As a result of monitoring and analyzing the balloon while it was in U.S. airspace, “we received some key background information,” he added.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing and the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to RushHourDaily’ request for comment.
U.S. officials minimized the danger that the balloon represented to national security at the time.
Despite protestations from China, the U.S. military shot down the balloon early in February near the Atlantic coast, after it had spent a week traveling over the United States and Canada.
The incident altered U.S. culture. Due to the worsening relationship between the United States and China, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing was postponed.
The encounter caused considerable alarm in Washington and spurred the military to search for further unexplained flying objects.
