Chinese spy balloon successfully transmitted intel from US military sites to Beijing.

A Chinese spy balloon that crossed into US airspace earlier this year was able to capture imagery and collect signals intelligence from US military sites, and transmit the information back to Beijing in real time. The US government still does not know whether the Chinese government could wipe the balloon’s data as it received it. The US intelligence community has not been overly concerned about the information the balloon was able to gather, as it is not much more sophisticated than what Chinese satellites are able to glean. The surveillance program, which includes a number of similar balloons, is in part run out of the small Chinese province of Hainan.