The Biden administration went along with U.S. intelligence agencies that recommended against releasing details to the public of a Chinese surveillance balloon that transited the United States unimpeded in early 2023 before being shot down by an Air Force jet fighter over the South Carolina coast.
U.S. military divers recovered a large amount of intelligence-collection gear in an underwater salvage operation. But all information about the balloon is being kept secret, said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Mr. Sullivan said the administration decided to down the balloon over water rather than land to better gain access to the spying components. The downing by an air-to-air missile over the ocean allowed U.S. recovery divers “to take critical components off the ocean floor, look at the technology, look at the capabilities and learn from that,” Mr. Sullivan said.
As a result, U.S. intelligence agencies learned about “basically what is China up to with this thing, what capabilities do they have,” he said, describing the recovered equipment as “pretty sensitive.”
“So this was not a White House-directed decision” to withhold details from the public, he said, “but the intelligence community, the FBI, made a judgment that the best way forward would be for us to take those lessons, apply them, share them as necessary with others, but not make a big public show of it.”
Asked if the Chinese spying equipment was more sensitive than initially assessed, Mr. Sullivan declined to comment, saying only that the technology was “interesting.” China has denied the balloon was spying and insisted the craft was an errant weather balloon.
The incident in February 2023 caused a sharp but temporary disruption in U.S.-China relations.
Read more from Inside The Ring
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.