Chinese balloon was ‘clearly’ for spying, says anonymous US official

State department source says spy plane images reveal shot-down craft was teeming with sensors

Images from U2 spy planes showed that the Chinese balloon that flew over the US last week was unmistakably equipped for collecting intelligence and not weather data, a US official said Thursday.

Detailed images taken by high-altitude U2s showed the balloon’s equipment “was clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment onboard weather balloons,” the senior state department official said.