Chinese reconnaissance balloon is part of a massive program on 5 continents: Blinken

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Wednesday said the US assessed that the alleged Chinese spy balloon shot down over the weekend was part of an extensive surveillance program aimed at gathering intelligence from targets around the world.

The video in the media player is taken from the previous report.

Speaking at a joint news conference with a top NATO official, Blinken said the administration has already shared what the US intelligence community has uncovered with America’s allies and Congress.

“This week, senior administration officials are on the hill, and we have already shared information with dozens of countries around the world, both from Washington and from our embassies,” Blinken said. “We are doing this because the United States was not the only target of this broader program that violated the sovereignty of countries on five continents.”

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Meanwhile, at a briefing at the Pentagon, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said China had conducted four balloon surveillance missions over “sensitive targets” on US soil in recent years, but did not say exactly when or where the incidents occurred.

“They looked at sites that might be of interest to the Chinese, but I won’t go into details,” Ryder said.

However, a senior US official told ABC’s chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz that previous incursions into US airspace had taken place over Hawaii and off the coast of the US mainland, especially near Coronado, California and Norfolk, Virginia, where two of the largest military bases are located. naval bases of the country.

The official also said the US had briefed India, Japan, Vietnam, and Taiwan, all of which appeared to be under Chinese balloon surveillance.

The same official also revealed that Chinese balloons are believed to have transited more than 40 countries and that the US recently briefed India, Japan, Vietnam and Taiwan – all of which appeared to be under aircraft surveillance.

While it is not yet clear how much information the administration has shared with allies prior to this, a State Department source said the information obtained from tracking last week’s balloon flight has given agencies a better understanding of China’s surveillance operation and more confidence in their assessment. .

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Blinken stressed that the US is still discovering more as efforts to recover and analyze the balloon’s wreckage come to an end.

“We are getting more information almost every hour as we continue to work to save the balloon,” he said.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that alliance members in Europe have observed Beijing’s “intensified intelligence activities” on the continent, including the use of balloons.

“We must be aware of the ongoing risk of Chinese intelligence,” he said.

A senior official told Raddatz that the observation balloons are operated by a branch of the People’s Liberation Army of China called the Intelligence Bureau, which also participates in the country’s vast satellite network.

Blinken was asked if he believed Chinese President Xi Jinping was aware of the balloon’s presence in US airspace ahead of what was to be the Secretary of State’s first official visit to Beijing. The trip was postponed indefinitely due to the incident.

“On the one hand, it doesn’t matter which people may or may not be responsible,” Blinken said. “The fact is that China is complicit in these irresponsible actions.”

President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he had not spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping since the US discovered and shot down the spy balloon.

Asked in an interview by PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff if “the US-China relationship has taken a big hit,” Biden replied, “No.”

“I didn’t speak to him during this,” he said.

“The idea of ​​shooting down a balloon that collects information over America, and which bursts, worsens relations? Look, I’ve made it clear to Xi Jinping that we’re going to be in full competition with China, but we’re not… I’m not looking for conflict. And so it has been until now,” Biden said.

Justin Gomez of ABC News contributed to this report.

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