Dozens of Chinese military balloons have been spotted flying through Taiwan’s airspace in the past few years, the Financial Times reported yesterday.
“They come very frequently, the last one just a few weeks ago,” a senior Taiwanese official was quoted as saying.
Similar incursions happen once every month on average, another official said.
Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Bureau
The Ministry of National Defense only confirmed one such incident — four batches of Chinese balloons flew over northern Taiwan in February last year, it said.
Balloons were also spotted flying over Japanese, Philippine and other Asia-Pacific countries’ airspaces, but those governments have given little detail on the incursions, it said.
Chinese balloon programs have drawn global attention after one balloon was spotted and shot down by the US on Feb. 4, it said.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been “strengthening capacities it would need to invade Taiwan,” such as building up its air, naval and missile forces, conducting military exercises simulating an invasion of Taiwan, and carrying out bigger and more complex military action around Taiwan, it said.
The rising tensions between the US and China caused further concerns for possible Chinese military action, it said.
The balloons spotted in Taiwan’s airspace were often flying at about 6,000m, far lower than the one that traversed the US at about 18,000m, it quoted Taiwanese officials as saying.
They were bigger and heavier than normal meteorological balloons, which are allowed to fly through other countries’ airspaces without permission under international law, the officials said.
The balloons were developed by the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission of the People’s Republic of China, it cited military and intelligence officials as saying.
The balloons have been collecting atmospheric data for radar and missile systems, Taiwanese officials said.
Air pressure and density can affect the accuracy of a missile after re-entry into the atmosphere, said Kitsch Liao (廖彥棻), who is assistant director of the Global China Hub at the Washington-based think tank Atlantic Council.
The atmospheric specifics can also affect over-the-horizon radars, which are long-range systems that China needs to operate in waters and airspace around eastern Taiwan, he said.
As algorithms involved in the operations require a large amount of data, and the conditions vary seasonally and annually, the “spy balloons” have to fly over repeatedly, he added.
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