What the US found in Chinese spy balloon
Early analysis of a spy balloon that was shot down in the US has revealed its true purpose – and it is not as the Chinese has claimed.
World
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China’s shot-down balloon was a remote controlled “airship of espionage” and part of a vast aerial surveillance program that posed a threat to US allies in the Indo Pacific, Australian diplomats have been warned.
As FBI engineers analyse the retrieved balloon they shot down this week off the US coast, officials in Washington and Beijing briefed diplomats from allied embassies on its analyses.
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Monday briefed nearly 150 foreign diplomats across 40 embassies in the US capital. The US embassy in Beijing provided a similar briefing.
According to those briefings, the guided balloon was reportedly for surveillance, and was not monitoring weather patterns and simply blown off course – as China has claimed.
It was reportedly kitted with electro-optical sensors and digital cameras that can capture highly detailed images, as well as radio signal and satellite transmission capability.
“What the Chinese have done is taken an unbelievably old technology and basically married it with modern communications and observation capabilities to try to glean intelligence on other nations’ militaries … it’s a massive effort,” one of the officials reportedly told allies.
The balloons operated out of Hainan province off China’s south coast, which has a major Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) military facility. The balloons are known to have conducted military surveillance not just on the US and Latin America but military assets in Japan, India, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Those nations have notably been in dispute with China in the South China Sea which the PLA has been militarising with man-made atolls for years.
The balloon was not, as Beijing has claimed, an “unexpected, isolated incident” but rather a co-ordinated spy program using various types and sizes of high-altitude espionage “airships”.
“We want to make sure that we are sharing as much as we can with countries around the world who may also be susceptible to these types of operations,” a senior US administration official said of the background briefing to allies including Australia.
The official said many allies had recognised they too might be “vulnerable and susceptible” to this program. Australia has confirmed to the best of its knowledge it was unaware if such a balloon has ever passed over its territory.
But the Federal Government has previously noted Chinese spy ships hoovering data off Australia’s coast, notably the joint US-Australian Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt north of Exmouth in WA, and military bases about Darwin in the Top End.
The US revealed there were solar panels on the balloon it shot down, and it had a rudder and propellers, meaning it needed more power than a weather balloon, and its flight path did not conform with natural wind patterns. The aircraft was part of a fleet and US intelligence had pointed to it being used “two dozen” times elsewhere.
US Secretary Antony Blinken cancelled a highly anticipated visit to Beijing after the balloon was identified last week; it was shot down by the US Air Force missile off the South Carolina coast. China has asked for what is left of it to be returned.
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