REUTERS
April 28, 2023 at 15:35 JST
A Twin-Tailed Scorpion drone takes part in the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Airshow China, in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, China September 28, 2021. (REUTERS)
TAIPEI—A new type of Chinese combat drone that China’s state media says can carry a heavy weapons payload has flown around Taiwan, the island’s defense ministry said on Friday, in the latest uptick in military tensions.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has increased military pressure on the island over the past three years as it tries to force Taipei to accept Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
This month China staged war games around Taiwan after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen met in Los Angeles with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Taiwan’s defense ministry, in its daily update of Chinese military activities from the previous 24 hours, said 19 military aircraft had entered the island’s air defense identification zone.
One of those aircraft was a TB-001 drone, which flew around Taiwan, first crossing the Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan from the Philippines, then up the east of Taiwan before crossing back toward the Chinese coast, according to a map provided by the ministry.
Chinese state media has referred to the TB-001 as the “twin-tailed scorpion” and has shown pictures of it with missiles under its wings, saying it is capable of high altitude, long-range missions.
China’s air force has flown what it calls “island encirclement” missions with the nuclear-capable H-6 bomber.
No shots were fired and Chinese aircraft have not flown in Taiwan’s airspace. The air defense identification zone, or ADIZ, is a broader area Taiwan monitors and patrols to give its forces more time to respond to threats.
Chinese military aircraft have since last year regularly crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which normally serves as an unofficial barrier between the two sides, though China says it does not recognise this.
Taiwan’s government rejects China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.
Taiwan reports second day of large Chinese incursion into its air defence zone
March 2, 2023
Taiwan reports 19 Chinese air force planes in its air defense zone
March 1, 2023
Taiwan reports largest ever incursion by Chinese air force
March 27, 2021
Taiwan says has spent almost $900 million scrambling against China this year
October 7, 2020
China simulates striking Taiwan on second day of drills
April 10, 2023Chinese fighter jets buzz Taiwan again, stoking tensions
June 18, 2020
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
