A view from the 220-meter (670-foot) summit of Mount Bi looking down on the airport’s only runway that juts out into the sea on Beigan Island in the Matsu island group, off northern Taiwan, August 22, 2012.
Wally Santana/AP
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Wally Santana/AP
A view from the 220-meter (670-foot) summit of Mount Bi looking down on the airport’s only runway that juts out into the sea on Beigan Island in the Matsu island group, off northern Taiwan, August 22, 2012.
Wally Santana/AP
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense says a Chinese weather balloon has landed on one of its remote islands, amid US allegations that the balloon was sent around the world to spy on Washington and its allies.
The ministry statement on Thursday said the balloon was carrying equipment registered to a state electronics company in the northern city of Thai Nguyen.
The island where it was found, Tungyin, is part of Matsu Island located off the coast of China’s Fujian province.
Taiwan maintains control of the islands after the two sides split in 1949 during a civil war, and they are seen as a first line of defense if China makes good on threats to bring Taiwan under control. by force if necessary.
Reached by phone, a public employee of the company, identified in the report as Taiyuan Wireless (Radio) First Factory Ltd., said it had supplied the electronics but had not yet built the balloon.
The spokesman, who gave only his last name, Liu, said Taiyuan was among the companies supplying equipment to the China Meteorological Administration.
The balloon was likely among those released daily to monitor the weather, he said, and probably departed from the coastal city of Xiamen without a fixed route.
Liu said its deflation may have been a natural result of it having reached a maximum altitude of about 30,000 meters (nearly 100,000 feet). Such balloons regularly fly over the Taiwan Strait, he said, but have only recently begun to attract attention.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said the device’s information is written in simplified Chinese characters used in the mainland instead of traditional characters in Taiwan.
China regularly sends military aircraft and warships into Taiwan’s aerial identification zone and across the median line of the Taiwan Strait. That has prompted Taiwan to increase purchases of military equipment from the United States, expand domestic production of aircraft, submarines and warships, and expand mandatory military service to all men.
Washington is Taiwan’s closest military and diplomatic ally, which, despite its lack of official ties, was severed in 1979. Beijing strongly opposes any contact between the island and the United States, but it is Their aggressive diplomacy helped build strong bipartisan support for Taipei on Capitol Hill.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden said the United States was developing “tighter rules” for tracking, monitoring and potentially shooting down unidentified aerial objects, after three weeks of intense drama. directly due to the discovery of a hot air balloon suspected of being a Chinese spy traveling over much of the country.
Biden directed national security adviser Jake Sullivan to lead an “interdisciplinary team” to review US procedures after the US shot down a Chinese hot air balloon, as well as three other objects Biden said The United States now believes that they are most likely “benign” objects launched by private companies or research institutions.
While not expressing regret for shooting down three still-unidentified objects, Biden said he hopes the new rules will help “distinguish between those that pose a potential safety risk.” and security need to act and the objects are not dangerous.”
