US Senator Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the spy balloon was dangerous but not surprising.
“The level of targeted espionage by Beijing into our country has become dramatically more intense and brazen over the past 5 years,” Rubio said on Twitter.
CIA Director William Burns was speaking at an event at Georgetown University in Washington, in which he called China the “biggest geopolitical challenge” the United States currently faces.
China and the United States, the world’s two largest economies, have experienced tensions of late due to a confrontation over Taiwan, China’s human rights record and its military activity in the South China Sea.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is going to visit China in the coming days.
A senior US defense official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said that the United States had “custody” of the balloon since it entered US airspace a few days ago and was spotted by US military aircraft went.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called a meeting of senior Pentagon officials on Wednesday during a visit to the Philippines to discuss the balloon incident.
The balloon has been flying over the United States for two days
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China declined to comment