About a week after the United States shot down a Chinese balloon over its airspace suspected of being launched for espionage, the US Department of Commerce announced imposing sanctions on 5 Chinese companies and a research institute that it said were linked to the Chinese surveillance program.

A report published by Newsweek indicates that more than half of the entities targeted by the aforementioned US sanctions are linked to one man who is considered the architect of the Chinese high-altitude surveillance program, which recently prompted the Americans to change their radar systems to monitor its balloons.

Who is the architect of the Chinese surveillance balloons, one of which was shot down by the United States last week and created a crisis between Beijing and Washington?

Wu Jie, the engineer of Chinese intelligence

The Newsweek report indicates that the prominent Chinese scientist, Wu Jie, a professor at the School of Aeronautical Sciences and Engineering at Beihang University of China, is the architect of the Chinese surveillance program that includes airships, balloons, and other means related to the Chinese military's "intelligence and surveillance."

Born in 1957 in north China's Shanxi Province, Wu has been involved for three decades in "near space" research, which focuses on the vast space above commercial airline routes but at altitudes below the orbits of satellites.

Four years ago, Wu, who teaches flight, announced a world tour for one of his team's pioneering unmanned balloons, which includes flights over North America.

Wu obtained a doctorate in structural mechanics in 1988 from the Harbin Institute of Technology, which was sanctioned by the United States in 2020 for its activities that contributed to the development of the Chinese army.

In 1991, he began teaching at Beihang University, which America has also imposed restrictions on for the same reason mentioned above since 2010.

Wu gave up his position as vice president of the university to devote himself to research and teaching, according to the university's website. Since his youth, he has made outstanding contributions to aerospace and aviation research, and has chaired a technical committee in the now-reconstituted General Armament Department of the People's Liberation Army, according to the Newsweek report.

The lead researcher in the College of Aeronautical Sciences and Engineering focused on aircraft components, electromagnetic radiation scattering and low-observation technology, says the university.

She adds that his achievements in applying stealth technology were particularly noteworthy.

The magazine says that the leading Chinese engineer's research focuses on aircraft components, electromagnetic radiation scattering and technology that is difficult to monitor, or what is known as "stealth technology".

Among his projects that reappeared this month was the previously announced airship, which seemed to be flying at a height not detected by radars.

Then Wu told the Chinese state-owned Southern Daily on August 20, 2019 that his team had managed to launch an unmanned balloon on a trip around the world.


A balloon and 3 mysterious objects in the sky of America

Within less than 10 days, 4 flying objects were shot down in the skies of the United States and Canada, Washington said that one of them was a Chinese spy balloon, while the other objects took a cylindrical or octagonal shape, according to what was recently revealed.

Concerned Americans are watching the skies as mysterious flying objects are monitored in succession in light of severe tension with China, although only the first object was attributed by the US authorities to Beijing, describing it as a balloon intended for espionage purposes.

On the second of February, the US Department of Defense (The Pentagon) announced that it was tracking a high-altitude balloon over US territory.

Washington confirmed that the matter was related to a Chinese spy balloon that entered US territory several days ago.

Beijing responded by saying it was a civilian vehicle used for research purposes, particularly for meteorology.

On February 4, the US military shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina, and on the tenth of the same month, Washington announced that it had dropped a flying "object" at high altitude over Alaska.

A White House spokesman said, "We do not know who owns this body, whether it was a country, a company or an individual, and we do not know until now the purpose of its use."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the shooting down of an "unidentified object" that was flying over northwest Canada as part of a joint operation between Washington and Ottawa.

Last Sunday, America shot down a fourth "flying object" by an F-16 fighter jet over Lake Huron in the northern United States.