US sources insist Chinese ballon was military spy balloon 

US intelligence sources have insisted the balloon shot down on Saturday was a Chinese spy balloon. 

The balloon was retrieved off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a day after it was shot down by a fighter jet. US officials say the ballon was nearly 200ft tall and the debris had spread over seven miles of Atlantic Ocean. 

China has repeatedly insisted that the “airship is for civilian use and entered the US due to force majeure – it was completely an accident”.

Unnamed officials told the Washington Post they believed such balloons were used to collect intelligence on strategically relevant territories, including Japan, India, Taiwan and the Philippines. 

An official told the Washington Post that the US intelligence community believed some of the balloons were being flown from Hainan, a southern Chinese island that is home to a naval military base.

CBS News, quoting an unnamed senior Biden administration official, confirmed that the US intelligence community believed the balloon was part of an “aerial surveillance program run by the People’s Liberation Army out of Hainan”.

The US briefed 40 allied countries about the alleged espionage, an official confirmed to CBS News. In that briefing, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman also revealed one balloon had circumnavigated the planet in 2019, travelling over Hawaii and Florida.

A second Chinese spy balloon was seen over Costa Rica and Venezuela last week. 

The spy balloons have only further strained relations between the US and China. 

A planned visit from Antony Blinken to Beijing was cancelled just a few days after the balloon was first seen – it would have been the first US visit to China in years. 

It’s not the first time a spy balloon has flown over the US, it’s reported by  US defence officials that at least three suspected balloons flew over the country during Donald Trump’s presidency. 

The latest balloon had flown over Alaska and Canada before appearing in the US state of Montana – home to several sensitive nuclear missile sites.