NASHVILLE, TN—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs Subcommittee on National Security and International Trade and Finance, and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX-10) released the following statement on news that U.S. technology was found in the recent Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spy balloon that violated American sovereignty and traversed the United States for eight days.
“This news heightens our concerns from the start that the CCP uses U.S. technology in its intelligence and military activities, including in the surveillance balloon. This incident has not been closed, and we look forward to viewing the full technology analysis of the surveillance balloon. Competitive actions, like export controls, must move forward to stand up to Communist China.”
Background:
Hagerty and his colleagues previously criticized President Biden for his stonewalling transparency after Communist China reportedly threatened to block Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing if the Administration released the FBI’s investigation of the February 2023 Chinese military spy balloon incident.
During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in May, Senator Hagerty urged Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink to support the immediate public release of the FBI’s report on the China spy balloon incident.
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