WASHINGTON – United States officials said on Friday that China had paused its spy balloon operations after one of the craft floated across much of the US in early 2023 and was shot down off the coast of South Carolina, setting off a diplomatic crisis between the rival powers.

Officials said they did not know how long the pause would last, but added that given the investments the Chinese government had made in the balloon programme, Beijing was likely to restart it.

The spy balloon that crossed the United States was part of a programme to collect information about military bases and operations in the Pacific, US officials believe.

But since its downing in February, the US has detected no additional balloon launches. US officials were quick to note, however, that China had continued other espionage operations, including the alleged recruitment of two US Navy sailors and the hacking of senior US officials’ e-mails.

The pause was reported earlier by CNN.

US intelligence agencies had tracked the balloon as it was launched from Hainan island, headed originally towards Guam and Hawaii, home to important Pacific bases.

But winds blew it off course, and it crossed over Alaska before drifting into Canada and then re-entering the US near Montana. As the balloon slowly made its way through the central and eastern United States, it became a subject of intense public fascination. President Joe Biden ordered it shot down once it reached the shallow coastal waters off South Carolina.

US officials said the balloon carried sophisticated instruments to collect imagery and communications. But it is not clear how much information the balloon sent back to Beijing during its transit over the US.

In a statement, Mr Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said the balloon was used for “meteorological and other research purposes”. Its transit over the US was “an unexpected, isolated incident”, he said. “The facts are clear and shall not be distorted or misrepresented.”

But US officials said they had no doubt that the Chinese claim that the balloon was for civilian research was inaccurate.

The incident aggravated a growing rift in US-China relations, one that the countries are still working to mend. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delayed an imminent visit he had planned to Beijing, and bilateral relations plummeted to their lowest point in decades. But Mr Blinken eventually made the trip in June, and China and the US have in recent weeks opened other discussions intended to ease tensions. NYTIMES