REUTERS
January 22, 2024 at 12:23 JST
TAIPEI--Taiwan’s defense ministry said it had detected six more Chinese balloons flying over the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, one of which crossed the island, the latest in a spate of such balloons the ministry says it has seen over the past month-and-a-half.
The ministry earlier this month, in a strongly worded statement, accused China of threatening aviation safety and waging psychological warfare on the island’s people with the balloons, days before Taiwan’s Jan. 13 elections.
China’s defense ministry, which last month declined to comment on the balloons, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China claims Taiwan as its own territory, despite the strong objections of the government in Taipei.
The potential for China to use balloons for spying became a global issue last February when the United States shot down what it said was a Chinese surveillance balloon. China said the balloon was a civilian craft that accidentally drifted astray.
In the latest incident, revealed by the ministry on Monday in its daily report on Chinese military activities over the past 24 hours, it said six balloons had flown over the strait’s sensitive median line on Sunday.
However, only one crossed Taiwan island, at its southern tip, according to a map the ministry provided.
The other five balloons flew to the north of Taiwan but did not fly over land, the ministry said.
The balloons all headed east before vanishing, it added.
The Taiwan Strait’s median line previously served as an unofficial barrier between Taiwan and China, but Chinese fighter jets, drones and now balloons regularly fly over it.
China says it does not recognize the existence of the median line.
China’s navy begins to erase imaginary Taiwan Strait median line
August 26, 2022
Chinese forces approached close to Taiwan coast to ‘intimidate’ voters before key elections--sources
December 13, 2023
Taiwan monitors Chinese carrier group in sensitive Taiwan Strait
November 9, 2023
Taiwan says Chinese air force, navy stage mass drill to island’s south
July 12, 2023
Taiwan warns of China military’s ‘sudden entry’ close to island
March 6, 2023
Biden ‘concerned’ as China extends military drills around Taiwan
August 9, 2022
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
A suspected Chinese spy balloon is seen before it was shot down off the coast of Garden City, South Carolina, U.S. February 4, 2023. (Travis Huffstetler/Handout via Reuters)
