Illinois Congressman says a spy balloon has damaged US-China relations

(The Center Square) – An Illinois congressman says relations between the United States and China have taken a turn for the worse after a Chinese spy balloon drifted over the country.

The enormous balloon reportedly drifted over Alaska before being spotted by the public over Montana. It then crossed over southern Illinois before being shot down by a U.S. fighter jet off the South Carolina coast earlier this month.

U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Schaumburg, said the balloon was very high tech.

“It had sophisticated sensory equipment, both for signals intelligence to potential pickup on ground communications, but it also obviously had cameras that were very sophisticated in nature,” Krishnamoorthi said in an interview with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

The White House said it had recovered key surveillance information from the balloon.

Following the destruction of the spy balloon, the U.S. announced new sanctions last week on six Chinese military and aerial technology firms for their alleged involvement in China’s aerial surveillance programs.

Krishnamoorthi said relations between the two countries are not good.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken “was about to embark on his trip to Beijing, and there was even talk of a potential visit by [People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping] to the United States, and all of that has been postponed,” he said.

As for the other three aerial objects that were recently shot down by the U.S. military in coordination with Canadian officials, President Joe Biden said Thursday that investigators believe they were not linked to China’s spy program.

“Nothing right now suggests they were related to China’s spy balloon program, or they were surveillance vehicles from any other country,” Biden said.

Meanwhile, an Illinois-based hobby club thinks one of its missing balloons may have been shot down. The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade told the publication Aviation Weekly that its balloon’s last position over Canada was in the same area an object was shot down by a U.S. fighter jet Feb. 11.

The description of all three unidentified objects shot down match the shapes and altitudes of small “pico” balloons that the club typically uses.