New Delhi, India

China has used spy balloons, similar to the one recently spotted in the United States airspace, to allegedly spy on other countries, including India and Japan, a report published by The Washington Post claimed. American authorities tracked the balloon after it was spotted, they later scrambled jets to shoot it down on Sunday and collected the debris to analyse it. However, China has said that the balloon seen flying across the US was a civilian "airship" which was used for research, mainly meteorological purposes. 

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A senior administration official familiar with the matter said that the Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Monday briefed officials from about 40 embassies about the latest on the balloon saga. 

The report by The Post, which is based on interviews with several anonymous defence and intelligence officials, mentioned that the surveillance balloon effort, which has operated for several years partly out of Hainan province off China's south coast, has collected information on military assets in countries and areas of emerging strategic interest to China including Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines. 

ALSO READ | Seoul takes unspecified 'measures' after North Korean balloon briefly spotted over South Korea 

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According to the report, the officials have claimed that these surveillance balloons have been spotted over five continents and are being operated in part by the Peoples Liberation Army air force. 

As quoted by the report, one official said that "what the Chinese have done is taken an unbelievably old technology, and basically married it with modern communications and observation capabilities" to try to glean intelligence on other nations' militaries. the official said that "it's a massive effort". 

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Meanwhile, a recent report highlighted that the US military failed to detect prior balloon threats. A senior commander, who oversees US forces in North America, said on Monday that there have been instances when Chinese balloon threats have gone undetected by the nation in the past. The official has highlighted the "awareness gap" which should be addressed by the government. 

Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, who is the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and US Northern Command, said, "I will tell you that we did not detect those threats. And that’s a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out." 

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