Newsman: The Chinese surveillance balloon that flew over the United States earlier this year before being shot down did not collect information as it went across the country, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
“We assess that it did not collect while it was flying over the U.S.,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder told reporters.
“We believe that (the balloon) did not collect while it was transiting the United States or flying over the United States, and certainly the efforts that we made contributed,” Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters at a briefing. Steps taken by Washington to stop the high altitude device from potential information gathering as it crossed the US in early February played a role in that outcome, according to Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.
When journalists asked about the Pentagon’s statement during a briefing Friday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the “so-called spy balloon” was a “total smear against China.”
The balloon spent a week flying over the United States and Canada before the U.S. military shot it down off the Atlantic Coast on Biden’s orders.
The balloon was downed by an American fighter jet off the coast of South Carolina on February 4, after it was tracked crossing the continental US on a course that took it over sensitive military sites.
The US ultimately linked the balloon to an extensive surveillance program run by the Chinese military, and US President Joe Biden has since alleged the device was carrying “two boxcars full of spy equipment.”
China has repeatedly claimed the device was a civilian research airship that was blown off course by accident and after its detection issued a rare statement of “regret” over the incident, which resulted in the postponement of a planned trip from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing. That trip took place last week, more than four months later.
At the time of the incident, Washington had signaled that the balloon did not present a significant intelligence gathering risk.
Ryder on Thursday did not get into specifics regarding recent reports that the Chinese high-altitude balloon was using US surveillance technology, but said such a situation would not be surprising.
Biden sparked Beijing’s ire last week when he told guests at a political fundraiser that Chinese leader Xi Jinping “got very upset” after the US shot down the balloon because “he didn’t know it was there” and then compared Xi to “dictators” who become embarrassed when they don’t know what’s going on.
China slammed the remarks, which came on the heels of Blinken’s visit, as an “open political provocation” and repeated their denial that the balloon was meant to spy over the United States.
