A report from NBC News explains that the Biden administration attempted to hide the Chinese spy balloon before media reports reported on the matter.
According to the report, U.S. officials tried to conceal the balloon’s existence from Congress.
“Before it was spotted publicly, there was the intention to study it and let it pass over and not ever tell anyone about it,” a former senior U.S. official said.
A senior administration official, however, denied that the White House attempted to conceal the presence of the balloon from Congress.
“To the extent any of this was kept quiet at all, that was in large part to protect intel equities related to finding and tracking,” the official said, describing efforts to gain intelligence on the object. “There was no intention to keep this from Congress at any point.”
President Joe Biden first learned about the balloon days after U.S. officials spotted it.
HOLY CRAP this story per @NBCNews
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) December 23, 2023
When the Biden Admin discovered the Chinese spy balloon, they wanted to hide its existence from CONGRESS
Their plans were ruined by news outlets reporting on the balloon pic.twitter.com/vFtsvaOMpa
A May report from Reuters revealed during the Chinese spy balloon incident, Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to protect China.
In an email dated February 6 and previously unreported, Rick Waters, the deputy assistant Secretary of State for China and Taiwan who leads the “China House” policy division, wrote: “Guidance from S (Secretary of State) is to push non-balloon actions to the right so we can focus on symmetric and calibrated response. We can revisit other actions in a few weeks.”
The sources indicated that many of these measures have not been reinitiated, leading to decreased morale at China House.
Blinken’s decision to delay major human rights and trade measures, including sanctions against Chinese tech companies like Huawei and actions to address China’s treatment of the Uyghurs, demonstrated a reluctance to penalize China for its provocative breach of U.S. airspace and sovereignty.
Anonymous individuals told Reuters that Blinken largely delegated China policy duties to Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the United States’ second-ranked diplomat with a history of being lenient toward China.
