A Chinese balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast was part of a large surveillance program that China has been conducting for “several years,” the US Department of Defense said on Wednesday.
When similar balloons passed over US territory on four occasions during the administrations of US President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, the US did not immediately identify them as Chinese surveillance balloons, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said.
However, “subsequent intelligence analysis” allowed the US to confirm they were part of a Chinese spying effort and learn “a lot more” about the program, he said.
Photo: AFP / US Navy
He refused to provide any new details about those previous balloons.
When pressed, Ryder would only say that the balloons flew over “sites that would be of interest to the Chinese.”
One of the possible incidents was in February last year.
Photo: AFP
US Deputy Adjutant General Kenneth Hara at the time wrote on Twitter about a balloon over Kauai, Hawaii, saying the US Indo-Pacific Command “detected a high-altitude object floating in air in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands” and sent up aircraft to intercept it.
He said they visually confirmed it was an uncrewed balloon with no identification markings.
Ryder declined to say whether this was one of the four previous incidents that the US had discussed. The US Pacific Air Forces, the US Air Force command in the Indo-Pacific region, said that balloon was not shot down.
The recent balloon was shot down by a US military fighter jet on Saturday. The US Navy and US Coast Guard were on Wednesday working to recover pieces of the downed balloon so they can be analyzed.
China said that it was a civilian balloon used for meteorological research and sharply criticized the US for shooting it down.
In response to questions about China’s explanation, Ryder said: “I can assure you this was not for civilian purposes... We are 100 percent clear about that.”
Ryder said North American Aerospace Defense Command began tracking the balloon as it approached US airspace. It passed north of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands on Jan. 28 and moved largely over land across the state into Canadian airspace before crossing back into the US over northern Idaho on Tuesday last week, US officials said.
Top Biden administration officials were briefing members of the US Congress on the Chinese balloon surveillance program in classified sessions on Wednesday and yesterday.
US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, US Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command Commander General Glen VanHerck and US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl were among those expected to brief lawmakers.
The US Department of State has sent a cable to all US embassies and consulates outlining the administration’s case against China and instructing US diplomats to discuss these points with their host governments, US officials said.
However, the cable is less specific than what has been briefed to allies and partners, they added.
Meanwhile, off the South Carolina coast, US Navy divers on Tuesday began pulling pieces of the downed Chinese spy balloon from the ocean floor, using sophisticated reconnaissance drones dubbed the Kingfish and the Swordfish to locate the debris.
Ryder said agents from the FBI and the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service are cataloguing the debris and transporting it for further processing.
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