Chinese spy balloon gathered intelligence on US military sites - NBC News

[April 03, 2023]  (Reuters) - A Chinese balloon that flew across the United States was able to gather intelligence from several U.S. military sites, despite the Biden administration's efforts to prevent it from doing so, NBC News reported on Monday, citing two current senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration official. 

A U.S. Air Force U-2 pilot looks down at the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon as it hovers over the central continental United States on February 3, 2023 before later being shot down by the Air Force off the coast of South Carolina, in this photo released by the U.S. Air Force through the Defense Department on February 22, 2023. U.S. Air Force/Department of Defense/Handout via Reuters

The balloon, controlled by Beijing, was able to make multiple passes over some of the sites in February, at times flying in a figure-eight formation, NBC cited the officials as saying.

"The intelligence China collected was mostly from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or include communications from base personnel, rather than images," NBC cited the officials as saying.

U.S. officials were not immediately available for comment.

At the time, U.S. officials played down the balloon's impact on national security.

The balloon, which Beijing denies was a government spy vessel, spent a week flying over the United States and Canada early in February before being shot down off the Atlantic Coast on President Joe Biden's orders.

The Chinese balloon incident prompted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a planned visit to Beijing and further strained relations between Washington and Beijing.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington and Juby Babu in Bengaluru, Editing by Louise Heavens and Bernadette Baum)

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