(PartiallyPolitics.com) – In an interview aired on Sunday CIA Director William Burns said that he did not know whether Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other officials in China knew about the suspected spy balloon which was flying across the U.S.
During an interview on CBS “Face the Nation” with moderator Margaret Brennan, Burns was asked whether the Chinese President had been aware of the balloon that had been sent to the U.S. In response Burns said that he was not sure about whether he knew. He added that this was something they needed to be careful about, especially as “the Chinese leadership obviously understood that they had launched this capability, that it was an intelligence platform.”
However, while Burns said that he believed Chinese leadership knew about the balloon’s surveillance capabilities he added that he was not certain if they knew how the balloon was being utilized or if they knew about the path that the balloon was on.
Earlier this month the balloon traversed across the continental U.S. before being brought down by the U.S. military off the coast of South Carolina. Following the balloon being brought down the government has been working to recover the debris from the balloon. Burns has claimed that the recovered wreckage would help provide further insight into the capabilities of the balloon.
He added that from a lot of the material that has so far been recovered from the balloon, it is clear that it was some sort of “an intelligence platform.” He added that by recovering the debris he was certain that they would be able to get a much clearer idea of the balloon’s actual capabilities.
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