
Hawley: ‘Very disturbing possibility’ US manufacturing helped build Chinese balloon
Misty Severi
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Republican senators said there was a “very disturbing possibility” that manufacturing in the United States aided the construction of the Chinese surveillance balloon after a national security briefing on Capitol Hill.
Officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Defense, and the State Department held two separate closed-door briefings on Thursday, one with each chamber of Congress.
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Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) said no one in the briefing clarified whether American companies helped build the Chinese surveillance balloon, but the question was raised in the meeting.
“American companies shouldn’t be helping build spy satellites that are used against their own citizens,” Sullivan told reporters after the briefing. “Maybe there’s nothing to be said about that, but somebody asked about it, and nobody, nobody in that briefing said, ‘Oh, it’s not a problem.'”
Hawley confirmed no one answered the question, stating it was a “very disturbing possibility.”
Hawley also slammed the Biden administration and Pentagon for being “ill-prepared” despite knowing that Chinese surveillance balloons existed.
“The other thing that it made was crystal clear from this briefing was how unprepared, totally unprepared the administration and, frankly, the Pentagon was for this to happen,” Hawley told Fox News.

“They’ve already made it public that we’ve known that there have been previous balloon flights over U.S. territories and, of course, the United States in years past,” Hawley said. “They knew that already, and yet they had nothing prepared to deal with this espionage balloon that came right over the United States. I mean, it’s really an incredible, incredible lack of planning. And frankly, I think major, major lapses of judgment.”
The question was raised after reports were made and confirmed in the briefing that the large balloon had Western-made parts with English writing. However, neither the Pentagon nor State Department claimed it was made in the U.S.
“We are confident that the balloon manufacturer has a direct relationship with China’s military and is an approved vendor of the PLA, according to information published in an official procurement portal for the PLA,” the State Department said Thursday, according to Fox News.
The briefing centered on the Chinese surveillance balloon that was discovered in Alaska before making its way to Montana earlier this month. The balloon was shot down this past weekend off the coast of South Carolina. It had traversed most of the country.
The Pentagon’s delay in shooting the balloon down until it was over the ocean has landed the Pentagon in hot water among conservatives.
Sullivan said he believes the information shared with the Senate should be released to the public.
“You know, when JFK realized we had missiles on the island of Cuba, right, the United States went public, so we should let people know when this has happened previously,” Sullivan said.
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Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) was the only Republican senator to break with his party on the briefing, claiming he got enough answers from the briefing to believe everyone involved acted “skillfully and with care.”