According to the Pentagon, the Chinese spy balloon, which was shot down over the United States at the end of January, still managed to collect military data. According to the US Department, this is also the reason that it hovered over important US places.
The question now is whether the information collected was actually sent to Beijing. According to the American channel NBC News, the balloon has been able to do this. The broadcaster reported on the basis of sources that the balloon was not so much taking pictures as picking up electronic signals.
Whether this is really so and what happened to this is not yet clear. The US Department of defense did not want to respond to those details, because the FBI is still investigating exactly what information the balloon sent to Beijing.
More than two months ago, the whole world was briefly captivated by this Chinese ‘spy balloon’ saga. China said at the time that the balloon was not intended for espionage, but that it was a weather balloon, which only took measurements for Weather purposes and which went off course due to adverse weather conditions and thus accidentally ended up over the United States.
Although this scenario was seriously taken into account, the Americans now seem to come to a different conclusion.
About the author: Rick Culpepper
Rick Culpepper is of those journalists who dig the topic to the very bottom. He is often late with the delivery of the piece, but always does it perfectly. In his spare time, he collects data for one of the most high-profile investigations of corruption in the EU.
