The US will explore taking action against entities connected to the Chinese military that supported the flight of a Chinese spy balloon into US airspace, a senior State Department official says.

Washington is confident the manufacturer of the Chinese balloon, shot down by the US military last weekend off the US east coast has a “direct relationship” with the People’s Liberation Army, the department official said in a statement.

The FBI, which is leading efforts to analyse recovered remains of the balloon, said on Friday (AEDT) it had obtained only limited physical evidence and did not yet have enough information to assess its capabilities.

“It’s very early for us in this process and the evidence that has been recovered and brought to the FBI is extremely limited,” a bureau official said.

FBI officials said they still did not have access to the majority of the balloon’s “payload” where most of the onboard electronics were likely carried. Much of that remains underwater.

They said understanding the components of the balloon was vital intelligence and could be “important pieces of evidence for future criminal charges that could be brought”.

A senior US State Department official said the balloon “was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations” and was part of a fleet that had flown over “more than 40 countries across five continents”.

The official said the Biden administration had determined the Chinese balloon was operating with electronic surveillance technology capable of monitoring US communications.

“We know the PRC used these balloons for surveillance,” they told CNN. “High-resolution imagery from U-2 flybys revealed that the high-altitude balloon was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations.”

China had conducted similar surveillance flights over more than 40 countries on five continents, the official said.

State Department spokesman Ned Price told a briefing that activity had occurred “over the course of several years”.

In the statement released by the State Department, a senior official said the balloon manufacturer had a direct relationship with China’s military and is an approved vendor of the People’s Liberation Army.

The statement did not specify what kinds of actions Washington was considering.

The company also advertised balloon products on its website and hosted videos from past flights, which appeared to have overflown US airspace and the airspace of other countries, the official said, without naming the business.

Separately on Thursday, speaking at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman highlighted the flight of the Chinese balloon as another sign of Beijing’s efforts to reshape the international order.

“This irresponsible act put on full display what we’ve long recognised – that the PRC (People’s Republic of China) has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad,” Ms Sherman told the hearing.

Ms Sherman said Washington would continue to block China from using US technology to advance its military modernisation.

“The PRC is the only competitor with the intent and means to reshape the international order,” she said, adding that the balloon’s violation of US sovereignty and international law was the “latest example of that reality”.

Nevertheless, Ms Sherman said she hoped Washington and Beijing would be able to continue to work together on issues of shared concern such as climate change “at this difficult time”.

The spectacle of the Chinese balloon drifting over the US last week caused political outrage in Washington and brought into sharp focus the challenge posed by China to the US and its allies.

Specialist US Navy crew retrieve the downed balloon. Photo: US Fleet Forces Command

It prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a trip to Beijing that both countries had hoped would patch up frayed relations.

Secretary of State Blinken would have arrived in Beijing on Sunday.

Instead, Thursday’s slew of briefings and hearings highlighted the political pressure President Joe Biden’s administration remained under to address the incident.

Democratic and Republican US lawmakers sharply criticised the US military and the President Biden administration for failing to shoot down the balloon when it first entered US airspace and instead waiting a week to do so.

The House of Representatives voted 419-0 for a resolution condemning China for the balloon incursion.

US lawmakers have demanded more information from the Biden administration about the incident.

China’s foreign ministry maintains it was a weather balloon that blew off course, and has accused the US of overreacting.

On Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry representative Mao Ning dismissed US charges the balloon was part of a worldwide spying fleet, saying that allegation could be part of a “US information war against China”.

-with AAP