China has conducted spy balloon program for years, Pentagon says – National | 24CA News

The Chinese balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast was half of a giant surveillance program that China has been conducting for “several years,” the Pentagon mentioned Wednesday.

When related balloons handed over U.S. territory on 4 events throughout the Trump and Biden administrations, the U.S. didn’t instantly determine them as Chinese surveillance balloons, mentioned Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary.

But he mentioned “subsequent intelligence analysis” allowed the U.S. to verify they had been a part of a Chinese spying effort and be taught “a lot more” about this system.

He refused to supply any new particulars about these earlier balloons. When pressed, Ryder would solely say that the balloons flew over “sites that would be of interest to the Chinese.”

One of the doable incidents was final February.

Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara, the adjutant common in Hawaii, tweeted a couple of balloon over Kauai a yr in the past. He mentioned U.S. Indo-Pacific Command “detected a high-altitude object floating in air in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands” and despatched up plane to intercept it. He mentioned they visually confirmed it was an unmanned balloon with no identification markings.

1:02China says particles from balloon shot down over U.S. ‘belongs’ to them

Ryder declined to say whether or not this was one of many 4 earlier incidents that the U.S. had mentioned. Pacific Air Forces, the Air Force command within the Indo-Pacific, mentioned that balloon was not shot down.

The current balloon was shot down by a U.S. navy fighter jet on Saturday. The Navy and Coast Guard are nonetheless working to get better items of the downed balloon to allow them to be analyzed.

China claims it was a civilian balloon used for meteorological analysis and sharply criticized the U.S. for capturing it down.

In response to questions on China’s rationalization, Ryder mentioned Wednesday that, “I can assure you this was not for civilian purposes … we are 100 per cent clear about that.”

Ryder mentioned North American Aerospace Defense Command started monitoring the balloon because it approached U.S. airspace. It handed north of the Aleutian Islands on Jan. 28 and moved largely over land throughout Alaska after which into Canadian airspace earlier than crossing again into the U.S. over northern Idaho on Jan. 31, U.S. officers have mentioned.

Top administration officers had been briefing members of Congress on the Chinese balloon surveillance program in labeled classes on Wednesday and Thursday. Avril Haines, director of nationwide intelligence; Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman; Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of U.S. Northern Command; and Colin Kahl, the below secretary of protection for coverage, had been amongst these anticipated to transient lawmakers.

4:16Mendicino defends timing of when Canadians discovered of Chinese spy balloon

Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned the U.S. has briefed dozens of nations on this system, which officers mentioned has been lively over 5 continents.

“The United States was not the only target,” he mentioned at a news convention with visiting NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. Blinken mentioned he and Stoltenberg had spoken in regards to the “systemic and tactical challenges” that China poses to the alliance and the significance of combatting them.

The overseas nations would come with nations the U.S. believes have been surveilled prior to now in addition to NATO allies.

Stoltenberg agreed on the character of the Chinese menace, saying the balloon incident “confirms a pattern of Chinese behavior” and noting that Beijing had “invested heavily in new military capabilities, including different types of surveillance and intelligence platforms.”

“We have also seen increased Chinese intelligence activities in Europe,” he mentioned. “We just have to be vigilant. We need to be aware of the constant risk of Chinese intelligence and step up what we do to protect ourselves.”

Those briefings had been persevering with Wednesday, and the State Department has despatched a cable to all U.S. embassies and consulates outlining the administration’s case towards China and instructing American diplomats to debate these factors with their host governments. However, the cable is much less particular than what has been briefed to allies and companions.

2:11China admits 2nd balloon over Latin America is theirs, entered airspace ‘by mistake’

Off the South Carolina coast, in the meantime, Navy divers started pulling items of the downed Chinese spy balloon from the depths of the ocean ground on Tuesday, utilizing refined reconnaissance drones dubbed the Kingfish and the Swordfish to find the particles.

Ryder mentioned brokers from the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are cataloguing the particles and transporting it for additional processing.

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