U.S. intelligence assesses that Chinese government surveillance balloons have transited the continental United States several times but went “undetected,” a senior administration official told Fox News Digital. A defense official on Saturday said Chinese spy balloons traveled over the United States at least three times during the Trump administration.
Former President Trump and a number of his top national security and defense officials deny the claims, telling Fox News Digital that it “never happened.” However, on Sunday, a senior administration official told Fox News Digital confirms them, saying that “U.S. intelligence, not the Biden administration” assesses that “PRC government surveillance balloons transited the continental U.S. briefly at least three times during the prior administration and once that we know of at the beginning of this administration, but never for this duration of time.”
The information on Chinese spy balloons under the Trump administration was “discovered after” he left office and “they went undetected,” the official told Fox News Digital.
The official said this is “part of a larger pattern.”
“These balloons are all part of a PRC fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations, which have also violated the sovereignty of other countries,” the official explained, adding that these activities are “often undertaken at the direction of the People’s Liberation Army.”
The official said that over the past several years, Chinese balloons have been spotted over countries across five continents, including in East Asia, South Asia and Europe.
U.S. officials told Fox News on Sunday that a Chinese spy balloon crashed into the Pacific off the coast of Hawaii four months ago. Those officials said that at least one Chinese spy balloon flew over portions of Texas and Florida during the Trump administration.
But Trump and his top national security and defense officials told Fox News Digital they were never briefed on something like that happening, stressing that it did not occur, and saying the Biden administration is spreading disinformation.
“This never happened. It would have never happened,” Trump told Fox News Digital on Sunday morning, adding that Beijing “respected us greatly” under his leadership.
