UNITED STATES (NewsFirst) — According to a US official, US intelligence agencies discovered in early 2023 that a Chinese surveillance satellite that passed through the US was using a US internet service provider to send short bursts of navigation and location-related data back to China.
The link was one of the ways the U.S. could track its location and collect data on the balloon as it passed through the United States, the source said. The ISP has not been released.
US officials said the balloon was able to communicate with Beijing while passing through the United States. According to the official, the network connection was not used to transmit intelligence information back to China.
The balloon has been storing data for later use, including images and other data that the US has been able to study since it was brought down in February.
The FBI and the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment. China continued to insist that the balloon was a stray weather balloon.
At the time, the United States estimated that the spy ball was part of a large-scale surveillance program by the Chinese military. U.S. officials say the balloon fleet has made at least two dozen flights over at least five continents in recent years. The U.S. intelligence community believes that Chinese Communist Party leaders did not intend to fly the balloon over the United States and even blamed officials for being vigilant about the incident.
President Joe Biden announced in June that Chinese leader Xi Jinping was unsure of the balloon’s location. He told guests at a political fundraiser that Xi was “very hurt” when the US dropped the balloon because “he didn’t know it was there”.
He then compared Xi to “dictators” who are embarrassed if they don’t know what’s going on.
