The Ministry of National Defense yesterday denied that Chinese forces came close to Penghu County, after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) published footage purportedly recorded near the county.
China launched military exercises around Taiwan after the visit by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this month, as well as during a visit by five US lawmakers on Sunday and Monday.
The PLA’s Eastern Theater Command on Monday released video footage of Penghu, apparently taken from a Chinese military plane.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, Bloomberg
Air force Vice Chief of Staff for Operations Tung Pei-lun (董培倫) told reporters in Taipei that the footage amounted to information warfare, although he had no comment on who had taken the video.
“China is using exaggerated tricks within cognitive warfare to create the illusion that its forces were close to Penghu, which is not true,” Tung said.
The ministry on Monday published a map showing that the Chinese aircraft that flew closest to Penghu that day were four J-16 fighters.
The fighters crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, but were closer to the Chinese coast than Penghu, the map showed.
Tung said that Taiwan had a real-time grasp of what was going on in the skies, adding that Chinese aircraft have been operating to the north and southwest of Taiwan, as well as across the median line.
Meanwhile, ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang (孫立方) said next year’s defense budget proposal has been submitted to the Cabinet for approval.
The budget is based on the “assessment of enemy threat,” military development needs and Taiwan’s overall financial resources, he said, without providing details.
Separately, the ministry neither denied nor confirmed a report by the South China Morning Post that the US Navy had jammed the radars of PLA warships and jets to prevent them tracking the plane that brought Pelosi to Taiwan.
China’s tracking efforts, which involved Type 055 destroyers and electronic warfare aircraft, were largely unsuccessful due to electronic interference from the aircraft carrier strike group the US had sent to escort Pelosi, the Hong Kong-based paper cited a PLA source as saying.
Sun declined to comment directly on the matter, but said that Chinese activities are being monitored by the Taiwanese armed forces’ joint intelligence and surveillance apparatus.
Beijing’s provocations provide training opportunities for Taiwanese forces to test their vigilance, preparedness and proficiency, while having full faith in their ability to defend the nation, he said.
Sun also declined to comment on whether a post-exercise review mechanism is being established in the armed forces, saying he can only confirm that the military is focused on augmenting its capabilities.
Also yesterday, the Aviation and Special Forces Command held live-fire exercises in Pingtung County involving AH-64E Apache and AH-1W Super Cobra helicopters.
Joint exercises are to be held by the navy and air force in the waters northeast and southwest of Taiwan proper tomorrow and on Wednesday next week, a defense official said on Monday.
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