Thread: Why the discovery of a Chinese balloon in US skies is such a big deal

Originally Posted by OhOh

Any ADZ, outside its territorial waters, is nobodies airspace.

There are two recognised lawful treaties which apply to those countries that have ratified them.

As NaGaStan has not ratified UNCLOS, it is not and cannot utilize the protections of it.

The Paris Convention.

The Paris Convention of 1919 sought to determine this question as part of the process of framing the convention's assumptions, and it was decided that each nation has absolute sovereignty over the airspace overlying its territories and waters

and

UNCLOS

1. The sovereignty of a coastal State extends, beyond its land territory and internal waters and, in the case of an archipelagic State, its archipelagic waters, to an adjacent belt of sea, described as the territorial sea.

2. This sovereignty extends to the air space over the territorial sea as well as to its bed and subsoil.

3. The sovereignty over the territorial sea is exercised subject to this Convention and to other rules of international law.

LIMTS OF THE TERRITORIAL SEA

Bredth of the territorial sea

Every State has the right to establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles, measured from baselines determined in accordance with this Convention

You can always rely on hoohoo to cut and paste this waffle every time.

Of course when a US plane or ship goes within sniffing distance of anything chinky, he whines like a stuck fucking pig.

Caitlin Johnstone
@caitoz


So to recap, the US air force shot down a Chinese balloon which US officials have subsequently admitted was only blown over the US by accident, then went on a spree of shooting things out of the sky which it turns out were probably civilian party balloons. Do I have that right?




12:08 PM · Feb 18, 2023·277.3K
Views
Caitlin Johnstone

Originally Posted by sabang

Caitlin Johnstone
@caitoz


So to recap, the US air force shot down a Chinese balloon which US officials have subsequently admitted was only blown over the US by accident, then went on a spree of shooting things out of the sky which it turns out were probably civilian party balloons. Do I have that right?

Every time his crush posts more dribble, sabang masturbates furiously.

Originally Posted by sabang

Caitlin Johnstone
@caitoz

I went over to read some of her tweets.

You do know, she's not all there.

U.S. intelligence officials determined the Chinese spy balloon used a U.S. internet provider to communicate


WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence officials have determined that the Chinese spy balloon that flew across the U.S. this year used an American internet service provider to communicate, according to two current and one former U.S. official familiar with the assessment.

The balloon connected to a U.S.-based company, according to the assessment, to send and receive communications from China, primarily related to its navigation. Officials familiar with the assessment said it found that the connection allowed the balloon to send burst transmissions, or high-bandwidth collections of data over short periods of time.

The Biden administration sought a highly secretive court order from the federal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to collect intelligence about it while it was over the U.S., according to multiple current and former U.S. officials. How the court ruled has not been disclosed.


Such a court order would have allowed U.S. intelligence agencies to conduct electronic surveillance on the balloon as it flew over the U.S. and as it sent and received messages to and from China, the officials said, including communications sent via the American internet service provider.

The company denied that the Chinese balloon had used its network, a determination it said was based on its own investigation and discussions it had with U.S. officials.
NBC News is not naming the provider to protect the identity of its sources.

A National Security Council spokesperson referred questions to the national intelligence director's office. It declined to comment.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said it was a weather balloon that accidentally drifted into American airspace.

"As we had made it clear before, the airship, used for meteorological research, unintentionally drifted into U.S. because of the westerlies and its limited self-steering capability," Liu told NBC News in a statement. "The facts are clear."

Chinese intelligence officials have covertly used commercially available service providers in various countries in the past, often as backup communication networks, according to multiple former U.S. officials. They frequently seek out encrypted networks or ones with strong security protocols so they can communicate securely, the officials said.

The previously unreported U.S. effort to monitor the balloon's communications could be one reason Biden administration officials have insisted that they got more intelligence out of the device than it got as it flew over the U.S.

Senior administration officials have said the U.S. was able to protect sensitive sites on the ground because they closely tracked the balloon's projected flight path. The U.S. military moved or obscured sensitive equipment so the balloon could not collect images or video while it was overhead.

After the balloon was shot down on Feb. 4, Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, told reporters that the U.S. military and intelligence community had taken exhaustive steps to protect against the balloon's ability to collect intelligence.

“We took maximum precaution to prevent any intel collection," VanHerck said at a briefing. "So that we could take maximum protective measures while the balloon transited across the United States.”

In an exclusive interview this month, VanHerck said he worked together with U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees U.S. nuclear weapons, to reduce the release of emergency action messages to ensure the Chinese balloon could not collect them.

“We took action to put capabilities away, whether that be airplanes, ballistic missiles in our missile fields," VanHerck said. "We limited our emission of emergency action messages that could be potentially collected on."

Emergency action messages, or EAM, are how U.S. leaders communicate with strategic forces all around the world. The messages, which are highly classified, can include directing nuclear-capable forces on response options in the case of a nuclear war.

“Protecting EAM and nuclear command and control communications is of critical importance to the United States,” a senior defense official said.

After the balloon was shot down, a senior State Department official said that it was used by China for surveillance and that it was loaded with equipment able to collect signals intelligence.

The balloon had multiple antennas, including an array most likely able to collect and geolocate communications, the official said. It was also powered by enormous solar panels that generated enough power to operate intelligence collection sensors, the official said.
Defense and intelligence officials have said the U.S. assessment is that the balloon was not able to transmit intelligence back to China while it was over the U.S.

The FBI forensics team that examined the balloon after it was shot down completed a classified report about the equipment it carried, according to multiple U.S. officials. Its findings remain secret and have not been widely briefed.

Federal judges on the surveillance court, where proceedings are held in secret, must determine whether there is probable cause that the surveillance target is a foreign power or a foreign agent and that the surveillance is necessary to obtain foreign intelligence information. The court's rulings are classified.

U.S. intelligence officials determined the Chinese spy balloon used a U.S. internet provider to communicate

^ WAR Driving is still an effective way to find a connection to the internet. Most WiFi networks have passwords these days, but not all. Would be interesting to know exactly what the balloon was up to.

Originally Posted by thailazer

Would be interesting to know exactly what the balloon was up to.

Lots of good intelligence obtained by the US, IMHO, which is why the balloon was allowed to stay in the sky so long.

Originally Posted by bsnub

Lots of good intelligence obtained by the US, IMHO, which is why the balloon was allowed to stay in the sky so long.

Yeah, and I imagine they were able to know just about everything about it after examining the hardware they collected.

Originally Posted by thailazer

after examining the hardware they collected.

Exactly why they waited to shoot it down over water.

Chinese Spy Balloon Was Packed With American Tech

Chinese spy balloon that crossed over the United States in 2023 was packed with American technology that could have enabled it to spy on Americans, according to two sources with direct knowledge of a technical analysis conducted by the U.S. military.


The discovery of a satellite communication module, sensors and other tech from at least five American firms underlines the failure of U.S. efforts to restrict exports of technology that could have military uses to main adversary China as well as to countries such as Russia and Iran. It also raises questions over the role of private companies that sell their equipment globally in keeping control over the ultimate users of dual-use technology that can have defense applications as well as civilian uses.


A Chinese patent reviewed by Newsweek describes a communications system for exactly such a balloon as the one that crossed America, based on using a satellite transceiver from a U.S. company that the balloon's controllers in China would use to communicate with it and that would send data back, and that is easily available online.


What Happened to the Chinese Spy Balloon?


The giant, white high-altitude balloon entered the United States via Alaska in January of 2023 and floated across Canada and the American Midwest, drawing a frenzy of public attention before being shot down by an F-22 fighter jet off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4. The balloon was estimated to be about 200 feet high with a dangling dark-colored frame that was at least 30 feet across. The frame had an approximately 10-foot-long tech payload that included sophisticated surveillance equipment - some of which was housed in a foam cooler - according to Newsweek sources.

Beijing said at the time that it was a meteorological balloon that had been blown off course by strong winds and accused the United States of overreacting.


What Was Found in the Chinese Spy Balloon?


However, the tech payload equipped the balloon to survey and take photographs and collect other intelligence data, Newsweek's sources said. They were granted anonymity to speak as they were not permitted to share the details of the classified report.


The ballon might also have been carrying launchable gliders that could collect more detailed data, since it had empty storage bays, they said. Chinese scientists have developed gliders to be used with such balloons, according to aerospace research papers reviewed by Newsweek.


The 75-page analysis of the parts recovered from the spy balloon and from what appeared to be two other balloons whose parts were collected elsewhere was carried out by the National Air and Space Intelligence Center in Ohio where a Foreign Materiel Exploitation Squadron examines foreign technical equipment, the sources said. Newsweek did not review the analysis itself.

Newsweek contacted NASIC's public affairs unit for comment but did not hear back. The Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, where NASIC is headquartered, told Newsweek it "did not have anything to do with this incident" and referred queries to the Pentagon. The Pentagon referred queries to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI declined to comment.


The Biden administration said the balloon was part of a large-scale surveillance program operated by China over dozens of countries.


Satellite technology


The technology identified by the sources matches that in a patent awarded in 2022 to scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Aerospace Information Innovation Research Institute in Beijing, which has links to China's military and to its industrial defense base. The patent included a short burst messaging module called Iridium 9602 made by Iridium, a global satellite communications provider based in McLean, Virginia – and coincidentally less than five miles from CIA headquarters.

The patent was titled "A high-altitude balloon safety control and positioning recovery device and method".


The analysis of the materiel recovered from the balloon showed that it had incorporated an Iridium communications system as well as technology from four other U.S. companies and at least one Swiss company, the sources said.


"A Chinese company would not have given them full satcom coverage over the U.S.," said one of the sources, a former federal intelligence employee.


What Did China Use the Spy Balloon For?


The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing did not respond to a request for comment. The Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. declined to take questions about whether the balloon was using American technology, referring questions to CAS.

However, the embassy restated China's position that the balloon was over the U.S. by accident: "The straying of the Chinese civilian unmanned airship into the US airspace was an accident caused by force majeure. The airship, used for meteorological research, unintentionally drifted into U.S. because of the westerlies and its limited self-steering capability. China had made these details available to the U.S. side, after earnest verification and in the shortest possible time," spokesperson Liu Pengyu said by email.


Iridium, which says its biggest customer is the U.S. Department of Defense, told Newsweek it could not know who its end customers were, and there were also resale markets for its products. Iridium said it had partners in China but declined to identify them citing commercial competition. It said it had no past or current relationship with the Chinese Academy of Sciences or its Aerospace Information Research Institute.


"We certainly don't condone our radios or our modules ending up and being used in ways they shouldn't be," said Jordan Hassim, Iridium's Executive Director for Communications, adding, "There's no way for us to know what the use is of a specific module. We need to know the module specifically. For us it could be a whale wearing a tag tracking it, it could be a polar bear, an explorer hiking a mountain."


No Export License Needed


Iridium said the 9602 satcom module could be exported to China without a license except for a prohibited end use or end-user, but that would be up to the partner to ascertain. If Iridium were to learn of misuse, it would immediately work with partners, including the U.S. government, to disable it, Hassim said.

The 9602 module, which fits in the palm of a hand, is sold by Iridium as "the critical data communications necessary for truly global solutions". It can be bought online in the U.S. from numerous providers for less than $150.


The other U.S. companies whose parts were identified in the balloon are: Texas Instruments, Omega Engineering in Connecticut, Amphenol All Sensors Corporation and onsemi, according to the sources. Technology made by STMicroelectronics of Switzerland was also in the balloon. Newsweek reached out to each company for comment. Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics said that they had not known that their parts were in the balloon, but that they respected export controls. The other companies did not respond.


The balloon that crossed America in 2023 was not the only such balloon. China's neighbors have reported more frequent missions.


Russian Weapons Systems


The balloon is far from the only example of Western tech being used by adversaries against it and against allies. Others have included the U.S. tech found in Russian weapons systems used in Ukraine.

One Newsweek source said that, in a surprise to investigators, the balloon's tech payload included a low-cost, ordinary foam cooler, one "you would buy at a gas station. But it's smart because it's light weight, floats, keeps things dry." The foam cooler contained hard drives for storing information including images, the source said.


The U.S. export control system was flawed and was not working adequately with China, said James Mulvenon, Chief Intelligence Officer at Pamir Consulting, a Vienna, Virginia-based company.


"The cynic in me would say what we're talking about is slamming the barn doors as hard as we can after the horse has bolted so that the hinges come off. The Chinese military modernisation revolution started in 1998. It's 2025," Mulvenon told Newsweek.


"But that's not to say that we shouldn't keep working at it, because what we know is that the Chinese side is very good at stealing things, they're very good at reverse engineering them, what they're not good at is understanding the inherent innovation at the heart of the tech so they have to continue to steal them."

Chinese Spy Balloon from 2023 was Found to Have American Tech, Military Analysis Finds - Newsweek