Bloomberg has the scoop on a relatively overlooked aspect of the Chinese surveillance balloon. It reported that members of Congress learned last Thursday that the balloon contained Western-made components with lettering in English:
An alleged Chinese spy balloon that traversed the US had western-made components with English-language writing on them, members of Congress were told on Capitol Hill Thursday, people familiar with the matter said.
Biden administration officials briefed lawmakers about the writing behind closed doors, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The officials included representatives from the State and Defense Departments as well as the intelligence community.
The potential gap in U.S. detection abilities that’s only been recognized with the shooting down of three additional objects this past weekend, as well as the broader, years-long Chinese espionage campaign that spans multiple continents, is important. But the fact that Western firms have seemed to contribute to Beijing’s espionage efforts is itself highly significant. Whether any U.S. firms will be implicated in the balloon campaign is an open question, and it should turbocharge discussions in Washington about beefing up U.S. capabilities to prevent export to and investment in Chinese-military-linked firms.