MFA:

"When you look at the scope of this program and the fact that we know that these balloons have been spotted ... operating over at least five continents in regions like Latin America, South America, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Europe, again, it demonstrates why, for the Department of Defense, that China remains the pacing challenge and something that we'll continue to stay focused on," Ryder said.

Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, will also gavel in the first public hearing on the balloon on Thursday with Pentagon officials set to testify.

Tester, whose state of Montana was traversed by the balloon, chairs the Senate panel that controls the Pentagon budget.

Sherman and the Pentagon's Asia policy chief, Ely Ratner, are also scheduled to testify at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on U.S.-China policy on Thursday.

Looks like China has been using the spy balloons to spy on a number of countries unbeknownst to them:

Although Chinese officials' claimed the balloon"which was first spotted over Billings, Montana, last week"was a civilian weather project that drifted astray in westerly winds, U.S. officials, speaking on background, told the Times it was actually part of a Chinese surveillance program used to evade detection by radar.

Officials say the massive balloon can drift in more irregular patterns determined by the wind, as opposed to a satellite, and can evade radar detection even though it hovered much closer to the earth, at an altitude of about 60,000 feet.

The balloon spotted last week, however, was only the latest one spotted by U.S. officials, the Washington Post reported, following a string of others that had collected surveillance information from more than 12 other countries over five continents.