Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated unequivocally that the U.S. has no doubt that China was attempting to spy on the U.S. using the balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina earlier this month.
In recent years, China's military has conducted surveillance over at least 40 countries across five continents, according to the U.S..
"I can't say dispositively what the original intent was, but that doesn't matter because what we saw when it was over the U.S. was clearly an attempt to surveil very sensitive military sites," Blinken said on ABC's "This Week" in an interview taped Saturday.
"There's absolutely no doubt in our minds about what the balloon, once over the U.S., was attempting to do. And no doubt in our minds about this surveillance balloon program that China has, and again, has been used over more than 40 countries around the world," he added.
President Joe Biden announced last week that, after the shooting down of the suspected Chinese spy balloon, the U.S. military shot down three much smaller objects that are now thought to be unrelated to any country's monitoring operation. Instead, they were likely utilized by private entities for weather or scientific purposes.
According to U.S. authorities, the Chinese balloon's payload, or the technology it was carrying, was about the size of three buses and was capable of collecting signals intelligence and capturing photographs. Officials have stated that the balloon flew over critical facilities in Montana, but the administration has stated that it tracked the balloon's journey and attempted to restrict its intelligence collection capabilities.
Regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the top American diplomat stated on Sunday that he is concerned about China's backing for Russia's military, notably that Beijing is contemplating providing Moscow with "lethal support."
China's support for Russia's military has allegedly become "disturbing" in recent months, and there are indications that Beijing intends to "creep up to the line" of providing lethal military aid to Moscow without being discovered, according to U.S. intelligence sources.
The officials would not elaborate on the evidence indicating a recent shift in China's approach, but they did say that U.S. officials were worried enough to discuss the material with friends and partners at the Munich Security Conference in Germany over the past few days.
"We've been watching this very closely," Blinken said.
