He the United States government emphasized this Thursday that the supposed Chinese spy balloon who crossed into his territory at the end of January last year, failed to collect intelligence datafollowing information that appeared in the media to the contrary.

Pentagon spokesman General Pat Ryder told a news conference that, Despite the fact that the device had the capacity to collect intelligence information, it did not while crossing the continental United States.

“As we said at the time, we are taking steps to limit potential (data) collection efforts around the world,” he noted.

US insists Chinese “surveillance” balloons have sailed to “five continents”.

That is how the Department of Defense responded to an article published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal, which shows that The Chinese balloon had US-made equipment that allowed it to take pictures and videos, but not transmit them.

The newspaper, citing officials who know the preliminary results of the investigations conducted in this regard, pointed out that several US defense and intelligence agencies have analyzed the remains of the device, which was shot down at the beginning of this year, along with the FBI. February over Atlantic waters after traversing the country.

This analysis showed that the whole world It had US-made equipment, which can be purchased online, along with specialized Chinese sensors. and other materials to collect photos, videos and other data to send to the Asian country, the officials said.

The Pentagon does not believe a Chinese spy balloon flying over the US poses a threat

According to the sources, these findings support the conclusion that the device was for spying and not to monitor weather conditions, as China said at the time.

Ryder noted that the discovery of US-made equipment in the world is no surprise to the Pentagon, as there have been past instances of commercially available US-made equipment, such as drones, being used in certain “capabilities” .

The Chinese spy balloon was located in late January in US airspace and was shot over Atlantic waters on February 4. It had been flying for days over various parts of the country, such as the state of Montana (Northwest), where one of the 3 existing nuclear missile silo fields in the United States is located.

Beijing claimed the balloon entered US airspace by accidentally deviating from its trajectory and claimed it was being used for meteorological purposes, not espionage, which was denied by Washington.

The discovery of the Chinese spy balloon reignited tensions between the US and China and led to the suspension of a trip to Beijing that Foreign Minister Antony Blinken was planning to make, which was eventually due to take place in June.