A top Pentagon official said Friday that China’s supreme leader was likely unaware of the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States until the controversy erupted, underscoring a split between the country’s top civilian and military leadership.
The official, Colin H. Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, said President Xi Jinping of China probably knew about his country’s broader high-altitude surveillance balloon program, but not the specific spy balloon until it captured widespread attention by floating over the United States.
"I suspect he asked his military about it, and his military started to backpedal and to make excuses,” Kahl said at a meeting with The New York Times editorial board in New York.