Balloon crisis shows leadership split in China: Pentagon official

He says President Xi does not trust his military commanders

WASHINGTON - A top Pentagon official said on Friday that China's leader Xi Jinping was likely unaware of the alleged Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States until the controversy erupted, underscoring a split between the country's top civilian and military leadership.

Dr Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defence for policy, said President Xi probably knew about his country's broader high-altitude surveillance balloon programme, but not the specific spy balloon until it captured widespread attention by floating over the US.

"I suspect he asked his military about it, and his military started to backpedal and to make excuses," Dr Kahl said at a meeting with The New York Times editorial board in New York.

"There is a major civil-military divide inside the PRC system," he said, referring to the People's Republic of China. "Xi Jinping does not trust his military. He doesn't." Dr Kahl's assertion that Mr Xi is suspicious of his military commanders is perhaps the strongest such public comment by a senior Biden administration official.

Mr Xi has moulded his identity and image around the idea that he is an heir of the Communist Party's original revolutionary zeal and its strong affinity with the Chinese military.