The Pentagon said on Monday it could not confirm reports that a Chinese spy plane managed to transmit real-time information to China while flying over classified US military bases earlier this year, adding that a US analysis was still ongoing. , reports Reuters.

“We have not been able to confirm that there was a real-time transmission from the balloon back (to (China)) at this time,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said, adding that “that is something we are currently looking into.” .

NBC News reported Monday that a Chinese balloon was able to collect information from several U.S. military bases and transmit it back to Beijing in real time, despite efforts by the Biden administration to prevent it.

“The information gathered by China came mainly from electronic signals, which may have been received from weapons systems or included messages from base personnel, rather than images,” the officials said, as quoted by NBC.

At the time, US officials downplayed the balloon’s impact on national security.

The balloon, which Beijing denies is a government spy plane, flew for a week over the United States and Canada in early February before it was shot down off the Atlantic coast on orders from President Joe Biden.

The incident with the Chinese hot air balloon forced US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to postpone a planned visit to Beijing and further strained relations between Washington and Beijing.