In tonight's OUTFRONT investigation
Inside China's spy balloon
making operations.
Six Chinese entities
that make the balloons
are now blacklisted by the U.S.
One of them
openly boasting about its,
quote, killer capabilities.
Another company's founder even o
showing his wares, pointing to a
flying over the United States.
There's video of state
media openly saying the spy
balloons are used for military p
Our Selina Wang is OUTFRONT.
Yeah, I know.
They're hoisting the balloon up
for a big moment.
It's the maiden flight
for China's first high tech
giant balloon.
State TV says it's from both mil
and civilian use.
So, Julie,
if we can master this technology
the narrator says in this 2015 s
media documentary,
it might become the killer move
in global competition.
Fast forward to 20, 23.
Hey, crowd.
They just shot it.
Now the world's
attention is on China's balloons
The U.S.
Commerce Department has blacklis
six entities tied to China's
military aerospace programs
from obtaining U.S.
technology
without government authorization
In this incident.
And the balloon
launched in this documentary
was made
by one of the blacklisted
entities, Beijing, Nanjing
Aerospace Technology
We try to find the place
we deal located a possible addre
for one of its factories.
According to state media,
they've got a balloon factory
on the outskirts of Beijing.
So we should be getting close no
This appears
to be the exact spot from the st
TV documentary.
You can even see the same view
of the mountain ranges behind me
But if you look here,
it looks like
there used to be buildings here,
but now it's just this empty spa
and there's this metal gate and
over this area.
We actually spoke to multiple vi
around here,
and none of them had
heard of a balloon factory in sp
But when we showed them
the state TV documentary,
they said it was definitely
filmed in this area.
And two of them said that they k
several of the factories in rece
years have been torn down.
We don't know if the balloon
that was spotted over the U.S.
this time around
has anything to do
with the six blacklisted compani
But Beijing,
Nanjing Aerospace
Technologies
balloon has flown over the US be
according to state media
in its 2019 state media video.
A co-founder of the company, Sci
Woods, points to a computer scre
showing the trajectory
of an unmanned airship
flying around the world.
You actually may walk, he says.
Look, this is the United States.
Beijing claims
the balloon that intruded U.S.
airspace earlier
this month was only
for civilian research purposes.
But US intelligence officials cl
the balloon is part of a fleet o
surveillance balloons.
The general manager
of the Beijing based
balloon company told state media
that the balloons can be used
for military purposes
if they carry telecommunication
or surveillance. Equipment on bo
Scientist Woods also founded Eag
Aviation Science and Technology
Group, or M.S.,
another balloon maker on the US
in this 2017 state media report.
On that,
the anchor touts that these airs
can carry
a large number of detectors
and communicate in equipment
for surveillance
or reconnaissance for both milit
and civilian use.
CNN has reached out
to all six Chinese entities for
but none have responded.
This balloon program
is not just for surveillance,
but also for strike
and the potential for dropping w
including hypersonic
glide vehicles from high altitud
This week, Beijing has made accu
of its own, saying the U.S.
has illegally flown
balloons over Chinese airspace.
More than ten times since last M
A claim the White House immediat
denied to that there is no U.S.
surveillance
aircraft over Chinese
in Chinese airspace.
The U.S.
is now on high alert for airborn
objects in its airspace,
putting China's near-space ambit
on the world stage. We are
But, Aaron, it's not just China
that's developing this
balloon technology.
I spoke to Brendan Mulvaney.
He's the director of the China
Aerospace Studies Institute.
And he said countries around
the world are investing in this,
including the U.S.
It's seen a sort of resurgence,
he said, because it's relatively
can hover for a long period of t
when surveilling
and it's harder to detect.
But it is clear from our researc
that China has a growing interes
in this area
and sees the whole near-space
arena as the next frontier
for great power rivalry Erin.
All right, Salena thank you very
So much
amazing detail and investigation
in her reporting.
So let's go now to John Bolton,
former national security
adviser under former President T
will be briefed tomorrow
by the Biden administration
on these Chinese surveillance ba
So, Ambassador Bolton,
you just heard
Selena
Wang's excellent piece here
about these six blacklisted comp
that have been at the heart of C
surveillance balloon ambitions.
They've been touting this progra
on state media, as you saw.
How concerned are you about
what we're seeing from Beijing r
Well, I'm very concerned
across the board.
Certainly the
balloon surveillance issue
is in the forefront of the news.
But Chinese efforts across the b
gain intelligence,
not just about the U.S.
government,
not just about our military capa
but of all aspects of American l
and their
means and methods cover
the fullest possible range.
And I think Chinese aspirations
really global.
It may look like they're seeking
right now
only in quotes,
only hegemony
along their Indo-Pacific periphe
But I think they have global amb
I hope this balloon incident.
However, it turns out in specifi
is is something of a wake
up call
for the American people
and for our European friends as
that China is the major threat
we face in this century.
So the Biden administration says
three balloons
flew over the United States
during the Trump
administration and went undetect
until recently.
And today,
John Kirby, who, of course, is
the National Security
Council spokesperson,
was asked
directly about comments
that you recently made,
sort of questioning that assessm
Here's what he said, Ambassador.
All we're doing
is speaking the truth.
The reason we know that
is because of the work we've don
since we came into office
to better understand this progra
And to try to do
the kind of deep
analytical work that needed to b
to decipher
how these balloons operate
Does this change your view?
He says, all we're doing is speaking the
Look,
the administration
is shattering its credibility
every time it puts another spoke
to talk about
what's happened
over the past couple of weeks.
I mean, on this specific questio
what happened
in the Trump administration?
I count four different stories.
First, it was detected
then it wasn't detected, but it
it was assessed incorrectly.
And I mean, it just keeps going
and forth.
The critical question here
and I'll ask about all this tomo
I know you're going to be briefe
by them tomorrow night.
Do plan to ask about it.
But but here's the key point.
And this is now come out in the
couple of days.
It appears that the first balloo
which is the one we know is from
We don't know
where the other three came from,
but that that first balloon
was detected by nor at or somebo
from the moment it was launched
from Hainan Island,
south of the Chinese mainland,
meaning that we knew from the ge
that balloon was from China.
And yet it was tracked
and approached Alaska,
where what the administration sa
first was it was detected
just north of the Aleutian Islan
And yet if this information
in all the major newspapers
already is about Hainan Island,
they knew it was from China. Rig
I knew it was from China
from the beginning.
There is no excuse
not to have shot that balloon do
But can I just ask to play devil
advocate here, and maybe
maybe there is an excuse.
Maybe the excuse is
they want to do observe it.
They wanted to see where it went
They wanted to see
how maneuverable it was.
They wanted to see what was on b
They were going to jam it. Right
All of that could be an excuse,
not an excuse.
It could be an explanation, coul
Okay.
Let me ask you a few questions.
Could they say with assurance
that that payload under the ball
which they described as
equivalent to three busses,
did not contain a nuclear weapon
Well, I certainly could.
They say with certainty.
That's right.
And they can't either.
Look, here. Here's all you.
That would be an incredible tech
if it was to be able
to launch a nuke from a balloon.
But you don't have to launch it.
You just have to drop it.
Okay.
It could not I'm not going to
answer your your specific questi
do you open the door
to the fact that they knew more
than they've told us?
It takes away
the fact that they should have told us mo
but that they knew more
and that they made an intelligen
assessment about what to do
All I
can all
I can do now is repeat what they
And the commander of NORAD's
said he made an assessment
on first detection,
and that's what they said on Jan
the 28th,
that the balloon
did not demonstrate hostile inte
I would argue it
demonstrated hostile
intent from the moment
we knew it came from China.
Did we make an effort
to call the Chinese
and say,
one of your balloons is heading
toward us?
If you have control of that ball
turn it around
or we're going to shoot it down.
Did we do that
or did we just sit there
with our thumb in our mouth
watching it cross
into American territory?
I think this is very serious
and it's going to be obviously c
to see what you get
briefed on tomorrow
and what what the answer is.
They do provide you
to some of those questions that
Ambassador, thanks very much.
I appreciate taking the time
to speak to me.
Glad to be with you.
All right.