'China's balloon part of large spy program'

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The Chinese balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina was part of a large surveillance program that Beijing has been conducting for "several years," the Pentagon said on Wednesday, an allegation that China has denounced as "information warfare."

When similar balloons passed over United States territory on four occasions during the administrations of President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, Washington did not immediately identify them as Chinese surveillance balloons, according to Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon's press secretary.