According to a recent allegation, the Chinese surveillance plane that circled the United States early this year was using an American internet provider to communicate with mainland China.
The craft used a U.S. internet provider to receive primarily navigational communications, according to two current and one former Biden administration official who spoke with NBC News on Thursday.
In the story, NBC News did not identify the internet provider. After conducting its investigation and speaking with U.S. officials, the business denied that the Chinese spycraft had used its services.
An official stated that the spy drone, shot down by the US Navy on February 4 off the coast of South Carolina, transmitted information using burst transmissions, a high-bandwidth data collection technique.
The report further stated that the Biden administration requested a very clandestine order to gather intelligence on the drone while it was flying over many states from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
According to the officials, the order would have given the government the ability to keep an eye on the communications of the spy drone as it traveled.
According to several officials quoted in the study, China has in the past employed covertly commercial internet companies located in other countries as backup communications networks. One common reason for looking for encrypted networks is security.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy, told NBC News that the device was a meteorological balloon that had gotten off track.
“As we had made it clear before, the airship, used for meteorological research, unintentionally drifted into the U.S. because of the westerlies and its limited self-steering capability,” Liu explained. “The facts are clear.”
Fox News Digital was not given a response from the Director of National Intelligence’s office.
For comment, Fox News Digital contacted the Chinese Embassy and the White House.
A previously undisclosed phone conversation presents a distinct picture of top officials concealing information regarding the Chinese surveillance balloon, despite assurances to the American people by Biden administration officials that the balloon did not gather or send data.
A phone conversation on January 27 between NORAD chief Gen. Glen VanHerck and President Biden’s top military adviser, Gen. Mark Milley, provides fresh information regarding China’s surveillance balloon, according to NBC News. According to the network, which cited several current and former administration and congressional officials, the administration had originally sought to hide the balloon’s presence from Congress and the general public.
“There was the intention to study it and let it pass over and not ever tell anyone about it before it was spotted publicly,” a former senior U.S. official told NBC.
Defending measures made to safeguard critical intelligence capabilities, a top Biden administration official refuted claims of an attempt to hide the incident.
This story was enhanced by Sarah Rumpf-Whitten of Fox News Digital.