Advertisement
US only ‘recently’ concluded Chinese balloon belonged to global surveillance programme: Pentagon
- Biden administration officials testify that week-long wait gave military extra time to observe airship over US and understand China’s capabilities
- Revelations come as House unanimously denounces ‘brazen violation’ of American sovereignty and accuses Beijing of deception
Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
99+
The US only “recently” came to conclude that the Chinese balloon it detected last week belonged to a global surveillance programme, prompting the American military to wait before shooting it down, senior Pentagon officials told a US congressional hearing on Thursday.
“The information that we have since gleaned about the balloons that have transmitted globally was only recently discovered,” said Melissa Dalton, Assistant Secretary of Defence for homeland defence and hemispheric affairs, in testimony before a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Details about the timing followed comments by a State Department official on Thursday that, based on imagery collected by American U-2 spy planes monitoring the balloon, it carried an array of surveillance equipment that proved it to be part of an intelligence-gathering effort.
Advertisement
As the Senate hearing on China’s “high-altitude surveillance efforts against the United States” played out, the House of Representatives voted unanimously to pass a resolution accusing China of a “brazen violation” of American sovereignty.
The resolution blamed China for trying to “deceive the international community through false claims about its intelligence collection campaigns”.
And amid claims by Republicans including Senator James Risch of Idaho that the Biden administration failed to keep Congress properly informed about the balloon, the Republican-led resolution also called on the administration to “keep Congress apprised by providing comprehensive briefings” on the incident.
Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x