TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) – Taiwan’s defense ministry said China’s weather balloons were being sent around the world to spy on Washington and its allies, amid US allegations. It said it landed on one of the offshore islands.
The balloon was equipped with equipment registered with the state-owned electronics company in the northern city of Taiyuan, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The discovered Dongyin Island is part of Matsu Island off the coast of Fujian Province, China.
Taiwan retained control of the islands even after the 1949 civil war split the two sides, and these islands would remain vulnerable to defense should China carry out its threat to occupy Taiwan by force if necessary. considered the front line.
An advertiser for the company, known in the report as Taiyuan Radio (Radio) First Factory Co., Ltd., said he was contacted by phone. He confirmed that he supplied the electronics but did not manufacture the balloons. A spokesman, who gave only his last name, said Taiyuan is one of many companies providing equipment to China’s weather bureau.
The balloon was likely one of the daily launches to monitor the weather and was most likely launched from the coastal city of Xiamen, which has no set course, he said.
According to Taiwan’s defense ministry, information about the equipment is written in simplified characters used on the mainland, not traditional characters used in Taiwan.
China regularly sends military aircraft and warships into Taiwan’s air identification zone and the Taiwan Strait midline. This prompted Taiwan to purchase more munitions from the United States, expand domestic production of local planes, submarines and warships, and expand conscription of all men.
Washington is Taiwan’s closest military and diplomatic ally, despite the lack of formal ties that were severed in 1979. Beijing has vehemently protested contact between the island and the United States, but its aggressive diplomacy has helped build strong bipartisan support for Taipei in the Capitol.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden said the US will track, monitor and possibly shoot down unknown airborne objects after three weeks of dangerous drama sparked by the discovery of a suspected Chinese spy balloon. It said it was developing “tighter rules” for Country.
Biden told National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan that the US process after the US shot down a Chinese balloon and that Biden said the US was most likely a “benign” object. He was instructed to lead a “multi-agency team” to review the other three objects mentioned. Launched by private companies and research institutes.
Biden did not express regret about shooting down the three unidentified objects, but said the new rules “distinguish between those who are likely to pose a security risk that requires action and those who are not.”
