White House: Improved Surveillance Caught a Chinese Balloon

WASHINGTON – U.S. officials said on Monday that improvements ordered by President Joe Biden to strengthen protection against Chinese espionage helped identify a spy balloon last week and determine similar flights were conducted at multiple locations during the Trump administration.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday that since Biden took office, the US “has increased our surveillance of our territorial airspace, we have increased our ability to detect things that the Trump administration could not detect.”

Speaking at an event hosted by the US Global Leadership Coalition, Sullivan added that as part of this effort, “we were able to go back and look at historical patterns” and identify “numerous instances” during the Trump administration of Chinese spy balloons crossing American airspace. and territory.

Several Trump administration officials have said they were unaware of the Chinese observation balloons during their tenure.

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Until Monday, U.S. officials said there were at least three times during the Trump administration and at least one other time during the Biden administration that presidential balloons crossed American airspace, but not for that long. In these cases, the United States determined that the balloons belonged to China only after they left US airspace, said Gen. Glen VanHerke, head of US Northern Command.

“I’ll tell you we haven’t detected these threats,” VanHerk said of his military command. “And that’s a gap in domain awareness that we need to find out.” He added that the US intelligence community informed his command about the balloons “after the fact”.

Sullivan did not explain what exactly allowed the US to locate and track the latest balloon where the previous administration did not. Officials said, without elaborating, that China had launched similar balloons over parts of the five continents in recent years.

Sullivan defended Biden’s decision to wait until the balloon was near the Carolina coastline before shooting it down, saying military advisers estimated that shooting it over water “creates a greater likelihood that we can use the wreckage effectively than if it was shot down above the ground. Some GOP lawmakers have criticized the president for not shooting him down sooner, though Pentagon officials have also warned of the potential risk to Americans on the ground.

VanHerck described the debris spreading through the water to “15 football fields by 15 square football fields”.

“The payload itself, I would classify it as the size of a jet airliner, maybe a regional jet… probably weighed around a couple of thousand pounds,” added VanHerck.

Sullivan said the US is “still trying to figure out” what Chinese officials know about the balloon and will not publicly speak about US assessments of China’s intentions to fly over the US yet.

The Biden administration has previously raised concerns about China’s use of observation balloons in Congress, including during briefings last August, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday that the US military has begun collecting debris from the balloon. He also confirmed that the White House had offered to hold a briefing with key Trump administration officials, but said the briefings had yet to take place.

Kirby strongly rejected Beijing’s claim that the US violated international law by shooting down the balloon.

“The United States, at the direction and order of President Biden, acted in accordance with international law and in defense of our homeland and our sovereign airspace,” Kirby said. “We had every right to shoot down this balloon.”

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Kirby also dismissed China’s claim that the balloon was intended for meteorological purposes, stating that “it is incredulous … that it was some kind of weather balloon floating in the wind.”

VanHerke, commander of US Northern Command, said the US “took the utmost precautions” to prevent the balloon from picking up information as it crossed the country. He declined to give any details on how it was done, including by US Strategic Command. According to VanHerck, the Navy takes protective measures during recovery operations in case explosives are found on the balloon.

He said some of the wreckage could wash ashore and warned the public not to try to collect it. According to the White House, the US does not plan to return to the remnants of the balloon even after the investigation is completed.

VanHurke said the balloon itself was 200 feet tall, and the sensor payload below it was about the size of a regional jetliner. Kirby added that the balloon had propellers and a rudder that allowed it to change direction, speed up, slow down and turn, but it was mostly dependent on the wind and was limited in mobility.

The decision to strike the balloon when it was six miles offshore came after consultation with NASA, which assessed the potential debris field due to the balloon’s altitude, VanHerck said.

The Navy also uses an underwater drone to photograph and track the wreckage. Monday was the first day it could be used due to rough seas, according to White House and Pentagon officials.

The White House said the balloon was a setback in an already strained relationship with Beijing. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was scheduled to visit China, but the trip was delayed due to the incident.

Still, White House officials have said that America’s relationship with China is arguably the most important to the United States, and that communication between the two countries continues. Jean-Pierre said the incident did not change Biden’s emphasis on putting up barriers in often tense relationships and working together on some issues of mutual interest.

“China will have to figure out what kind of relationship they want,” she said.

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Associated Press contributors Tara Kopp and Colleen Long contributed to the report.