Taiwan reports Chinese balloon, first time in six months

It described the incidents arsenic portion of a Chinese unit run – alleged grey-zone warfare designed to exhaust a foe utilizing irregular tactics without unfastened combat. Taiwan powerfully objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says lone the island’s radical tin determine their future.

The ministry, successful its regular greeting update connected Chinese subject activities implicit the erstwhile 24 hours, said the azygous balloon was detected astatine 6:21 p.m. (1021 GMT) connected Sunday 60 nautical miles (111 km) to the northbound of Taiwan’s Keelung port.

It past vanished immoderate 2 hours later, having flown astatine an altitude of 33,000 ft (10,000 metres), but without crossing Taiwan itself, the ministry said. China’s defence ministry did not respond to a petition for comment.

China has antecedently dismissed Taiwan’s complaints astir the balloons, saying they were for meteorological purposes and should not beryllium hyped up for governmental reasons.

The imaginable for China to usage balloons for spying became a planetary contented past twelvemonth erstwhile the United States changeable down what it said was a Chinese surveillance balloon. China said the balloon was a civilian trade that accidentally drifted astray.