A suspected Chinese surveillance balloon flying over the US was yesterday condemned by officials in Taipei and sparked calls for the government to plan countermeasures.
The Pentagon on Thursday said it had detected a Chinese surveillance balloon flying over the country.
Beijing has said the balloon is a civilian meteorological device that drifted into US territory after being blown off course.
Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Bureau
The National Security Bureau and Ministry of National Defense should investigate whether surveillance balloons could be used against Taiwan and prepare to respond to such acts, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s postponement of his visit to China as a result of the incident was a foreseeable consequence arising from the competition for power between the two countries, he added.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned China in a statement, saying that Beijing’s behavior breached international laws and was “unacceptable to the community of civilized nations.”
Photo: Cheng Wei-chi, Taipei Times
China should cease all activities that infringe on the sovereignty of other nations or cause instability in the region, it said.
Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) urged China to respect the sovereign airspace of other countries, as that would facilitate peace, mutual aid and cooperation between nations.
Lu Yeh-chung (盧業中), a professor in National Chengchi University’s Department of Diplomacy, said the balloon incident showed the “extreme lack of trust” between the US and China.
The two countries are likely to remain locked in competition for some time, Lu added.
That Blinken would delay a long-planned visit to Beijing over the incident hinted at other under-the-table disputes that might have occurred between the US and China while they were preparing for the visit, he said.
The strong response the incident elicited from Washington was diplomatically appropriate, as national security is an issue of utmost importance to the US, Lu said, adding that failing to send a clear signal could embolden China.
Similar balloons were first spotted in Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture in June 2020, although no country claimed ownership of the craft at the time, Central Weather Bureau Director-General Cheng Ming-dean (鄭明典) said.
Bureau personnel observed a balloon of the same type hovering over Taipei in September 2021, and members of the public reported seeing another in March last year, this time above Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), he said.
The objects were in the two areas for about three hours and photographs were taken of them, Cheng said.
Civilian weather balloons — typically 2m wide and made of rubber — usually hover close to the launch site and at a height of no more than 30km, he said.
The Chinese balloons observed in the Taiwan incidents were no less than 20m wide, and their range and altitude suggest different materials were used to construct them, he said.
Additional reporting by Chou Ming-hung
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday criticized the nuclear energy referendum scheduled for Saturday next week, saying that holding the plebiscite before the government can conduct safety evaluations is a denial of the public’s right to make informed decisions. Lai, who is also the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), made the comments at the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting at its headquarters in Taipei. ‘NO’ “I will go to the ballot box on Saturday next week to cast a ‘no’ vote, as we all should do,” he said as he called on the public to reject the proposition to reactivate the decommissioned
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
US President Donald Trump on Friday said that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) told him China would not invade Taiwan while Trump is in office. Trump made the remarks in an interview with Fox News, ahead of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “I will tell you, you know, you have a very similar thing with President Xi of China and Taiwan, but I don’t believe there’s any way it’s going to happen as long as I’m here. We’ll see,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News’ Special Report. “He told me: ‘I will never do
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS