A US military intelligence report from last year that focused on China’s use of high-altitude balloons mentioned sightings in Hawaii and Florida during the Trump presidency, according to an excerpt of the report reviewed by CNN.
The April 2022 report, titled “People’s Republic of China High-Altitude Balloon,” found a Chinese spy balloon “circumnavigated the globe” in 2019 – while Donald Trump was president – at an altitude of roughly 65,000 feet, and “drifted past Hawaii and across Florida before continuing its journey,” the US Air Force document states.
The Air Force intelligence report is the first indication that the US military was aware of Chinese spy balloons well before the latest incident.
However, it is not clear from the documents when US officials first became aware of the Chinese flights or what they assessed regarding their purpose.
The Air Force assessment obtained by CNN states that a spy balloon was “launched and controlled” by China in 2019, showing the country was capable of navigating a high-altitude balloon across the globe as far back as the Trump administration.
China has “deployed multiple HABs [high altitude balloons] that can operate at 65,000ft – 328,000 ft and for months at a time,” the assessment adds.
The news comes as Trump administration officials have in recent days questioned how Chinese spy balloons could have similarly traversed the US on their watch without them knowing, as the Biden administration and senior defense officials have said is the case.
In the early days of the Biden administration, a Chinese spy balloon briefly transited the continental United States, as US officials have acknowledged.
CNN earlier reported that three suspected Chinese surveillance balloons drifted over the continental US during Trump’s time in office.
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