Wed 08 February 2023:
The White House on Wednesday said that China has operated a global fleet of espionage balloons similar to the one shot down last week after crossing the United States.
“These balloons are all part of a (Chinese)… fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One. “Over the past several years, Chinese balloons have previously been spotted all over countries across five continents.”
Chinese balloon was military
US intelligence sources have insisted the balloon shot down on Saturday was used by the Chinese military for spying.
Unnamed officials told the Washington Post they believed such balloons were used to collect intelligence on strategically relevant territories.
They include Japan, India, Taiwan and the Philippines.
Chinese officials have already denied using such balloons for surveillance.
An official told the Washington Post that the US intelligence community believed some of the balloons were being flown from Hainan, a southern Chinese island that is home to a naval military base.
Quoting an unnamed senior Biden administration official, CBS News confirmed that the US intelligence community believed the balloon was part, in its words, of an “aerial surveillance program run by the People’s Liberation Army out of Hainan”.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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