Taiwan Reports: One flew above the island after other Chinese balloons were seen

Taipei, Taiwan For the second day in a row, Taiwan’s defense ministry announced that it had seen three additional Chinese balloons flying over the island on Wednesday as they crossed the Taiwan Strait.

When the United States shot down what it claimed to be a Chinese surveillance balloon in February 2023, concerns about China’s possible use of balloons for espionage spread across the world. China said that the balloon was a civilian craft that had unintentionally strayed.

Ahead of the presidential and legislative elections scheduled on January 13, Taiwan is on high alert for any military or political activity linked to China. It claims that China is attempting to meddle in the elections by using economic and military pressure.

Taiwan’s government denies that China claims the island as its own.

Since last month, the Taiwanese defense ministry has documented many incidents of Chinese balloons passing over the narrow Taiwan Strait, entering the airspace to the north of the island, and then disappearing.

However, there have been two consecutive reports of balloons reaching the island this week alone.

The ministry claimed on Thursday that three Chinese balloons had flown over the strait once again, one of which had gone over the center of Taiwan island before disappearing, in its daily report of Chinese military action over the preceding 24 hours.

The other two balloons sailed close north of the Penghu islands, which are home to another air facility, while the northerly balloon was seen 45 nautical miles (83 km) north of Hsinchu, the location of a Taiwanese air force base.

On the other hand, a ministry-provided map showed only a single balloon passing over Taiwan Island.

The ministry would not comment on the potential uses of the most recent balloons, despite having earlier said that it thought they were mostly for weather monitoring.

A request for comment was not immediately answered by China’s ministry of defense. It refused to comment on the balloons last week.

Chinese fighter aircraft and vessels now routinely operate in the Taiwan Strait as a result of China’s increased military presence in the region during the last four years.