China has targeted over 40 countries on five continents with a fleet of spy balloons, according to a high-ranking US State Department official in Washington.
The Chinese balloon which the recently US shot down had multiple antennas in an arrangement that likely enabled China to collect and locate communications, it was said.
US authorities used reconnaissance aircraft to take high-resolution images to determine the balloon's capabilities while it was still in US airspace, the senior official said to reporters on condition of anonymity.
The balloon's equipment was found to be clearly for intelligence surveillance and was not consistent with weather balloon equipment. The US official said such balloons were deployed at the direction of the Chinese military.
"We are confident that the balloon manufacturer has a direct relationship with China's military," the official said.
The appearance of the massive balloon over US territory further soured already tense relations between the two countries.
The US military shot down the balloon off the coast of the state of South Carolina on Saturday. It fell into the Atlantic Ocean.
Earlier on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the balloon as part of a comprehensive surveillance operation by the Chinese.
Beijing has described the ongoing spying allegations from Washington as an "information war."
"I think this is part of the information war the US is waging against China," Beijing Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Thursday. The international community knows exactly who is in fact "the number one spy and surveillance empire," Mao added.
"The United States was not the only target of this broader programme, which has violated the sovereignty of countries across five continents," Blinken said at a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Washington. The US had exchanged information with dozens of countries about this, he said, without giving more concrete details.
The Foreign Ministry in Beijing repeated its account of the affair on Thursday. According to the statement, it was a civilian balloon that had accidentally entered US space due to force majeure, a legal term for uncontrollable events.
"Although we have repeatedly made it clear, the US used force to shoot it down, which is irresponsible," Mao said.
