The Pentagon has apparently completed its investigation into the suspected Chinese spy balloon. Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said in Washington on Thursday (local time): “As you heard at the time, we were aware that it (the balloon) had intelligence-gathering capabilities.” However, the Pentagon came to the conclusion that the balloon had not collected any data during its flight over the United States. The “efforts we have made” would certainly have contributed to this, Ryder said, without giving details.
After the alleged spy balloon was shot down in February, it was long unclear whether it had collected data about US territory. The balloon’s entry into US airspace further strained the tense relationship between the US and China. The United States accused China of espionage, which Beijing denied. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had canceled a trip to Beijing because of the balloon affair and only made it up in June.
The US Air Force shot down the suspected spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on February 4 after days of flying over the US. A few days later, three more unidentified aircraft were shot down over the United States and Canada. With these objects, however, it turned out relatively quickly that there was a high probability that there was no connection to China.
“Most likely” they are “tied to private companies, leisure or research institutions” “that study the weather or conduct other scientific research,” said US President Joe Biden after the objects were taken from the sky. Biden had ordered the objects to be shot down himself, but admitted a little later that he had acted out of “excessive caution”.