The US government said Thursday that the Chinese Spy balloon’s equipment was clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment onboard weather balloons.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said last Friday that the balloon was a civilian machine from China mainly used for weather research. The Chinese government said the United States had overreacted and violated international conventions.

Also read: United States Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon Over Atlantic

The Chinese government also said the balloon belonged to China and should not be kept by the United States.

Chinese spy balloon shot down by the US military

The Chinese spy balloon was shot down by the US military over the Atlantic Ocean. It was capable of collecting communications signals and was part of a fleet of surveillance balloons directed by the Chinese military that had flown over more than 40 countries across five continents, the State Department said.

The United States used high-resolution imagery from U-2 flybys to determine the balloon’s capabilities. The balloon had multiple antennas in an array that are capable of collecting and geo-locating communications. The state department said that the Solar panels on the machine were large enough to produce power to operate multiple active intelligence collection sensors.

“American officials do not know exactly what kinds of communications the satellite was trying to collect and have not determined what sites the balloon was targeting”, US officials said.

“The administration is hopeful the intelligence will counter China’s narrative of the balloon and put pressure on its government to curb some of its aerial surveillance”, the US officials added.

United States officials said the Biden administration has declassified information it has gathered on the balloon that traversed the United States last week and the Chinese military’s broader balloon surveillance operations in order to inform the American public and allied and partner nations of China’s espionage activities.