Report highlights foreign power surveillance
The Chinese balloon that was floating over the continental United States generated deep concern on Capitol Hill in part because it came on the heels of a classified report to Congress that outlined incidents of U. S. adversaries potentially using advanced aerial technology to spy on the country.
The classified report to Congress last month discussed at least two incidents of a rival power conducting aerial surveillance with what appeared to be unknown cut ting- edge technology, according to U. S. officials. Although the report did not attribute the incidents to any country, two U. S. officials familiar with the research said the surveillance probably was conducted by China.
The report on what the intelligence agencies call unidentified aerial phenomena focused on several incidents believed to be surveillance. Some of those incidents have involved balloons, and others have involved quadcopter drones.
The Chinese government said Friday that the Chinese balloon discovered this past week over the United States was mainly for weather research. However, U. S. officials said they have assessed it to be a collection device, although not one that could gather the kind of sensitive information that advanced Chinese reconnaissance satellites collect.
Many countries use aerial spying technology to gather data on rival nations as well as allies and partners, and to look at remote parts of the globe. But the practice can lead to diplomatic crises when it goes awry.
On Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a weekend trip to Beijing, which would have been the first visit by the top U. S. diplomat there since October 2018, after American news organizations began reporting on the Chinese spy balloon Thursday, when it was drifting over Montana. In 2001, a U. S. Navy signals intelligence aircraft collided with a Chinese interceptor jet near the Chinese island of Hainan; the incident left a Chinese pilot presumed dead and led to a diplomatic crisis involving the leaders of the two nations.
China spends about $ 209 billion, or 1.3% of gross domestic product, on its military overall, according to a Pentagon report. But policymakers in Washington have been especially worried about its investments in technologies that could have military or intelligence applications.
U. S. defense officials believe China is conducting surveillance of military training grounds and exercises as part of an effort to better understand how America trains its pilots and undertakes complex military operations.
The classified report mentioned Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada and Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan as sites where foreign surveillance was believed to have occurred, but did not explicitly say China had been behind the actions, a U. S. official said.
Since 2021, the Pentagon has examined 366 incidents that were initially unexplained and said 163 were balloons. A handful of those incidents involved advanced surveillance balloons, according to a U. S. official, but none of them were conducting persistent reconnaissance of the U. S. military bases.
Because spy balloons are relatively basic collection devices and other balloons have not lingered long over U. S. territory, they previously have not generated much concern with the Pentagon or intelligence agencies, according to two officials.
The surveillance incidents involving advanced technology and described in the classified report were potentially more troubling, involving behaviors and characteristics that could not be explained.
Republicans and Democrats hawkish on China called the surveillance balloon a violation of U. S. sovereignty.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R- Wis., a member of the House Intelligence Committee and chair of a new House committee on China, said the administration needs to tell lawmakers more about what it knows about surveillance of military facilities.
“This is all the more reason for the House Intelligence Committee to receive a full briefing on this matter,” Gallagher said Friday. “There is a documented history of unidentified — and now identified — objects near sensitive military facilities, and we need to move with a sense of urgency to get to the bottom of this.”