Chinese spy balloon was able to transmit information back to Beijing | CNN Politics

US Spy Balloon's Beijing Transmission Raises Concerns Over Unknown Intelligence.

A recent incident involving a Chinese spy balloon that transited the US earlier this year has revealed that the device was capable of transmitting information back to Beijing in real time, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The balloon, which first crossed into US airspace over Alaska in late January, captured imagery and collected some signals intelligence from US military sites before being shot down by the US off the East Coast on February 4. However, despite its flight path crossing through sensitive areas like Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, officials say that the balloon did not provide critical new insights to Beijing.

The source states that while the US government still does not know for sure whether the Chinese government could wipe the balloon's data as it received it, intelligence community concerns over the incident remain relatively low. This is partly because the information gathered by the balloon was not significantly different from what Chinese satellites can glean from orbiting similar locations.

Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of US Northern Command and NORAD, recently stated that the US "did not assess" that the balloon presented a significant collection hazard beyond existing technical means from China.

Despite these concerns, officials acknowledge that the surveillance program run by the Chinese military, which includes a number of similar balloons, has conducted at least two dozen missions over five continents in recent years. Roughly half a dozen of those flights have been within US airspace, although not necessarily over US territory.

China maintains that the balloon was actually just a weather balloon thrown off course, while the US is assessing whether it was deliberately maneuvered into the continental US by the Chinese government. However, officials believe that China did maintain some ability to maneuver the balloon once it was over Montana and took advantage of its position to loiter over sensitive sites and collect intelligence.

In light of these findings, questions remain as to what additional intelligence the US might have missed due to the balloon's capabilities being unknown or not yet fully understood.

idk why ppl r so calm about this... chinese spy balloon just flew w/out any consequences . like, if u think that's not a big deal, then maybe u dont get it. we r talking about intel here, not some harmless bird . and now ppl are saying its all good bcuz china says it was just a weather balloon lol . but what if thats not true?! what if china was testing our defenses? . at least be honest w/urself about it, dont just shrug it off like its no biggie .

So this whole thing with the Chinese spy balloon is still pretty murky . I mean, we know it was collecting intel and sending it back to Beijing in real-time, but apparently that data wasn't super groundbreaking. The fact that China has been doing these surveillance missions for years and can do similar stuff from space is concerning, though - like, if they're already using tech from orbit, what else are they hiding? It's also weird that the balloon just kinda... hung around sensitive sites without arousing too much suspicion. Did it get lucky or was China being sneaky on purpose? The fact remains that we don't know for sure how much info the Chinese got from this thing, and that's what's got our intel community feeling a bit anxious

I'm still trying to wrap my head around this whole thing ... I mean, can't believe a country we're supposed to be 'allies' with would risk sending up a spy balloon that could potentially intercept sensitive info from major military bases and then claim it was just a weather balloon ... And now they're saying it's probably not even possible for them to wipe the data as soon as it gets transmitted, so what's the point of even having such capabilities?

It's like, I get that China wants to know what's going on in our backyard, but do we really need to be this paranoid about a balloon? And what does this say about our intelligence gathering abilities? Did we not anticipate something like this from the Chinese side?

I think we need more transparency and clarity on this whole thing. Like, how many of these balloons have they actually sent up? What else are they collecting intel on? And most importantly, why are we still letting them get away with it? ...

You know, I just can't help but think of those old spy movies from the 80s like James Bond where you had these super sophisticated surveillance systems that could transmit info in real time... and now this US spy balloon thing is kinda like something outta that movie . But what's really got me thinking is how back then we used to have these massive Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union, and now it seems like China is doing some kinda similar cat-and-mouse game with the US .

And I mean, can you believe this thing was able to just fly over Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana and no one knew until it got shot down? That's like something out of a sci-fi movie! What if they were using some advanced technology that we don't even know about yet? It's giving me major 80s spy thriller vibes . Anyway, I guess what's important is for the US to be on high alert and figure out how much more intel China might have been able to gather while this thing was in the air...

this whole thing is super sketchy... like, we're already dealing with a bunch of spy balloons just floating around in our airspace and nobody knows if they're collecting intel on us or what it's like, basic human decency to know what's going on in our own country? I mean, China's saying one thing but I'm not buying it - those balloons are basically just a fancy way of saying "we're watching you" and the fact that we don't even know if they have a way to wipe the data as it happens is seriously concerning

I'm still trying to wrap my head around this whole situation... if China can just "accidentally" send a spy balloon into our airspace and it's basically like they're flying under the radar ... what else have we been missing? The fact that half a dozen of their flights were within US airspace but not necessarily over US territory is already giving me the heebie-jeebies . I mean, how do you even track that stuff? It's like they're playing a game of spy-tag with us ... not cool, China . Can we at least know what kind of tech they used to make this thing fly so stealthy ? Transparency would be nice ...

this whole thing is super shady imo. like china's got a whole program with balloons doing surveillance and we don't even know how much info they're sending back to beijing... it's like, what if we didn't know about it until now? we're still figuring out the tech behind these things and china's already been doing this for years. half a dozen flights in US airspace already? that's a red flag.