February 13, 2023 2:49pm EST
White House hits Trump admin for failing to find China's spy craft program: 'They did not detect it'
Kirby credited knowledge of China's spy program to President Biden
By Anders Hagstrom | Fox News
President Biden's administration hit former President Donald Trump's administration for failing to detect China's ongoing surveillance balloon program on Monday.
National Security Council strategic communications coordinator John Kirby delivered an update on the issue after the U.S. shot down four high-altitude objects over the past week, including China's surveillance balloon over the coast of South Carolina. Kirby noted that China's high altitude surveillance program was operating during Trump's administration, but said "they did not detect it."
"When President Biden came into office, he directed the U.S. intelligence community to do a broad assessment of Chinese intelligence capabilities and ensure and to ensure that we were working to detect and to protect against them," Kirby said during a White House press briefing.
"We were able to determine that China has a high altitude balloon program for intelligence collection that's connected to the People's Liberation Army. It was operating during the previous administration, but they did not detect it. We detected it. We tracked it. And we have been carefully studying it to learn as much as we can," he added.
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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-hits-trump-admin-failing-detect-chinas-spy-craft-program-they-did-not-detect-it
