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China’s high-altitude surveillance balloon maneuvered over sensitive U.S. missile and nuclear weapons sites in addition to ones in Montana that it passed over before being shot down off the South Carolina coast Saturday, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, said Tuesday.
“If you take the path that this balloon did, and you put up an X every place where you have a missile defense site, actual nuclear weapons infrastructure, you’re going to follow this path,” Turner said in a briefing with reporters. “So I think the natural conclusion is, it is intelligence gathering with respect to try to affect in some way the command and control of our missile defense and nuclear weapons.”
Turner did not elaborate or share other details about the ongoing investigation into China’s balloon, in some cases citing the classified nature of the information. But he said the U.S. intelligence community is scheduled to brief him and other members of congressional leadership who comprise the Gang of Eight later this week on the balloon and efforts to gain any intelligence from the recovery of it.
The Gang of Eight refers to a group of congressional lawmakers who are responsible for reviewing and receiving highly sensitive intelligence information given to them by the executive branch. It includes the top-ranking Republicans and Democrats, and top Intelligence Committee lawmakers, in the House and Senate.
Shooting down the balloon:US downs suspected Chinese spy balloon off Carolina coast
Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed an imminent trip to China because the Chinese surveillance balloon drifting over the U.S. was a « clear violation » of sovereignty and international law, Biden administration officials said Friday.
That, and the takedown of the balloon, have heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing and sparked criticism from Republicans that the Biden administration should have done more. Beijing has also criticized Biden, saying he overreacted by ordering an F-22 fighter jet to take out the puffy white dirigible.
