China appears to have suspended spy balloon program after February shootdown, US intel believes | CNN Politics

China appears to have suspended its surveillance balloon program, sources say.

Chinese officials have made a deliberate decision not to launch additional balloons since the one over the US was shot down by American fighter jets in February .

China has repeatedly claimed the device was a civilian research airship that was blown off course by accident.

The suspension of the program is likely China 's way of trying to stabilize its relations with the United States .

The US widened the aperture of its radar systems so that they could better detect objects traveling above a certain altitude and at certain speeds.

The aim was to fix a “domain awareness gap” that had allowed three other suspected Chinese spy balloons to transit the continental United States undetected under the Trump administration.