Chines balloon capable of gathering intelligence.

It was equipped with multiple antennas capable of “Intelligence collection operations”, a senior state department official said in a background briefing.

On Thursday, US lawmakers passed a non-binding resolution condemning China for the balloon. China has denied the balloon was used for spying purposes. It has been said the balloon was a weather device blown astray.

The US, however, believes the balloon is part of a wider fleet of surveillance balloons that has spanned five continents. House of Representatives lawmakers, called the balloon a “brazen violation of United state sovereignty” as the body voted 419 to 0 on Thursday morning to condemn its use.

Its appearance in US airspace has provoked a diplomatic crisis and led Secretary of State Antony Blinkan to cancel a trip to China, the first such high-level US-China meeting there in years. The US military used a fighter jet to shoot the balloon down over the Atlantic Ocean over the weekend.